Creating the conditions for change is how we move things forward. Change is emergent and if we have the right conditions in place then we have a greater chance of positive change.

I have developed the ‘Creating the Conditions for Change’ workshop from my experiences of putting systems thinking into practice in complex situations over a number of years. Not only have I drawn on sound systems theory, concepts and approaches, I have also tried them out and used my insights and learning to create my materials.

Workshop

In my Creating the Conditions for Change workshops, I take people through questions such as the following:

• How might you engage in peer to peer collaborations?
• How might you instigate and implement change yourself, within the span of your autonomy;
• How can you strengthen community, develop networks, collaborate and work together with people outside of your own team on an ongoing basis;
• How can you contribute to internal system coherence;
• How can you bring humanity and balance back into the work;
• How do you make joint decisions, decide upon joint goals and decide what level of performance is reasonable;
• How do you ensure effective system characteristics;
• How do you create congruence between the system and its vision;
• How do you build external relationships and gather intelligence about the world around you;
• How do you ‘pivot’ and change quickly enough;
• And how do you get that small element of joint vision, meaning, purpose and identity, whilst still allowing and accepting difference?

These are some of the starting questions I use to help those who are trying to create the conditions for  change. I use my Systems Thinking Change Wheel to highlight and explore these questions and bring in a set of over 100 Action Cards to help people take the thinking and make it into a reality. We use a case study example in the workshop to practice on and I also give a sense of the practical and emotional investment required to work in a systems and complexity informed way.

In your organisation/ place/ service/ department etc

I also use the ‘Creating the Conditions for Change’ approach when working on site with organisations. I don’t ‘do change to’ people, I help them think about the situation themselves and create their own options for improvements, using the wheel and action cards as a basis for creating the conditions for the change they require.

Creating the conditions for change is down to you and I can help you to start thinking about how you might do this.

Please get in touch if you are interested in running a workshop for your organisation or ‘place’ or if you are interested in using this approach to understand your range of improvement options for an organisation/ area/ place/ service/ department etc.

pauline@systemspractitioner.com

Please note that the Systems Thinking Change Wheel and associated text  are protected by UK Copyright.