I am not a professional photographer, not by a long way, but it is my hobby and I thoroughly enjoy it.
It struck me how my hobby and my systems practice take similar paths. When I started out with photography I bought a good all round lens. One that would do macro photography and distance and in particular I wanted to photograph birds. Nearly 20 years on I still use that trusty lens. I know it inside out. I know how it performs. I know when to push it and when not to. It almost becomes a part of me as I scan the landscape for an interesting framing. It was a long time before I would move on from that lens and that was purposeful. I wanted to make sure I could master every setting it had to offer. I didn’t just want to use the easy, pre programmed settings but I wanted to savour everything it had to give. To understand it in depth. I had done the same in the past with a basic bridge camera, mastering it by continuously tinkering until I knew it inside and out. I was not frightened of getting things wrong. When they did go wrong I tried again until I got a result I liked. I never viewed it as failure, just learning and I loved the learning process. Getting a bad picture was just as satisfying because it taught me something else about me, the camera and how we operated together. It was exciting if things went wrong because it taught me what not to do next time.
Taken with a humble bridge camera in 2007-2008
My systems practice is the same and I use the same tactic when I train others: master the basics. Master them until you know them inside out. Learn when systems concepts and ideas are applicable and when they are not. Learn what they look like and feel like when they show up in public services or in a community setting. It takes years to master such concepts. I mean to really master them. If someone comes along and tells you they have mastered them in great depth only a few years, I would say that they probably haven’t mastered them at all. I started formal education in systems thinking in 2006. Today, in 2025 I still remind myself to go back to the basics and gain greater mastery of them.
My ethos when training and educating others is to encourage people to gain the best insights about the basics of systems thinking that you can and never stop learning. True application isn’t about using someone else’s approach but understanding the basics and developing your own approach, relevant to your own context. If you do use someone else’s approach, you can guarantee that you won’t get as much value from it without a strong understanding of basic systems thinking concepts and ideas.
Nowadays, my focus is on encouraging others on a path to deeply embodying systems thinking.
It is just like my photography – on an journey of deep and enjoyable learning.
It’s a strange phenomenon – the erosion of the individual and their unique thinking and style. I stand back and watch it with sadness in the arena of systems thinking. There are two ways I see this happening:
The first happens when a really enthusiastic and forward thinking systems thinker does not have faith or confidence in their own style and approach. I watch them as they grow at first. They have original thoughts. They are excited and committed to their own learning. They move forwards leaps and bounds beyond anything that’s currently out there. But then, it happens! Because they are starting to get ahead of the game, they stand alone. I watch as they migrate towards the crowd, seeking connection, ratification or a platform for their voice. They are sucked in by those who understand the game – the need for recognition and/ or even prestige. They wait like praying animals for the unsuspecting practitioner walk their way. They nurture them into their fold, secretly feeding off them at the same time. What I see outwardly is the once vibrant, enthusiastic and insightful practitioner melting into the shadows. Their narrative becomes nothing more than the rhetoric of the group. Their originality melts into a big, soppy puddle. They lose themselves. Their social media posts become less inspiring, their original thinking is eroded and they are lost to a space of the average, the mediocre, the ordinary. A brilliant practitioner lost to the crowd. I can name at least three instances over the last couple of years where someone I know could have been and would have been brilliant if they had followed their own course. They are now gobbled up by the gang, following those who they perceive will give them prestige by association, their original thinking now nothing but a distant memory.
My suggestion to newer practitioners in the field is to trust yourself. Step into your own creativity. Feel it, live it and let it blossom. Do not melt into the background just to fit in. No-one is going to tell you when your thinking is way beyond what they could conceive, so don’t expect pats on the back if you are doing well. You might sit in a lonely place because no-one understands you but I say ‘go with it’. Trust your journey and don’t let those who could not walk your journey stand in your way.
I would like to give newer practitioners some advice about protecting your own original ideas and work. You are surrounded by people who can benefit from your ideas, so you need to be as savvy as them about the value your work holds.
As a practitioner, it is entirely feasible for you to independently create original work. In the world of academia, people would be worried about someone taking the ideas and publishing them first, therefore taking away the claim of originality. As a practitioner, you must also consider this. Practitioners are generally not affiliated with a university. Therefore, publishing your ideas is more difficult, particularly if you want them to be open access. This can have huge costs which render this option not feasible. Therefore, it is entirely possible for you to create original work and ideas, share them (because you want people to benefit from them) and then someone write up a version of them academically. The barrier to writing up officially for practitioners is something I had not contemplated when I first started out, so this is something practitioners should be aware of.
Sharing your ideas
So, does this mean that we should not share our ideas? No, it doesn’t mean that. It just means that you need to be careful if you want to protect your work. As stated in the blog above, ‘You can’t protect an idea under copyright law – you can only protect a form it takes’ (Mewburn, 2022). Even if you write your idea down, it doesn’t stop others from taking it and running with it themselves, but it can help you to evidence copying if you need to do that at any stage.
What if you want to take your ideas into an academic context – i.e. a doctorate?
As stated in the blog, if you have over shared, it would be difficult to then shift your work into a more formal academic form (i.e. a peer reviewed journal) (Mewburn, 2022). As a practitioner, if you do not immediately go down an academic route, prepare to have your ideas used and written up by anyone. Of course, we can choose to share our work openly and ask people to develop our ideas but there is one precaution – many practitioners have asked me about becoming a consultant, as I have. To do this, it is your original ideas that give you your unique selling point. You have to market them but once you have, they are open for anyone to run with. The answer – do not over share. Give only that which is required to spark interest and keep the more developed things to yourself if you aim to use them in consultancy or if you want your ideas recognised. In the past, I have ‘thought out loud’ far too often because I did not know the pitfalls.. Yes, you are stuck in a bind: you want your work to be recognised, so you share, and then you risk losing control of it. Make your choices wisely.
Collaborating with others
Again, as the blog states, in academia there are rules around collaboration so that the creator of the work is recognised as such (Mewburn, 2022). As practitioners, we have no such protection. One of the ways people can be exposed to your work is by claiming to want to collaborate with you (or they want you to do a talk about your work). Once you have let your ideas out, your competitive advantage disappears, especially if others have larger work networks than you. My advice to practitioners is to ‘beware the love bombers!’. When you are a new practitioner, you want to be seen, so are likely to be more willing to fall for the requests for collaboration or for talks and sharing. If you share, do so wisely. Not everyone is your friend.
Summary
This is the start of work I am doing to bring awareness to systems thinking practitioners about the pitfalls of creating original ideas and work. I have made the mistakes so that you do not have to. In short:
Write you work up. I took my blogs and turned them into a self-published book to secure my ideas into one place.
If you think you want to make money from your ideas, copyright them. In reality, it is unlikely to stop others taking them but it does give you an evidence trail if you should ever need it.
Don’t over share. If it is valuable, be wise about who you share it with.
If you think you might want to go down an academic route, do so sooner rather than later. Learn about the idea of ‘original work’ and take any precautions you might need to take.
Beware of collaborations where the power dynamic is imbalanced. If you cannot keep control of how your own work is used in the collaboration, then the power dynamic is imbalanced.
Systems thinking practitioners can be leaders in the field but we need to be savvy about the pitfalls that can harm us.
In May 2023, I released my book, ‘Crossing the bridge: A practitioner’s learning journey into systems thinking and Creating the Conditions for Change’. It is a clear, non-technical and practical guide to how to start applying systems thinking ideas in an organisational setting, which I self-published through Kindle Direct Publishing.
Putting systems thinking into practice can be like crossing a precarious bridge. We never quite know when it is going to collapse below us. Even our best efforts can see us come up against unexpected challenges and obstacles. We need to practise, iterate, and practise again. It is often a jaunt into the unknown and part of our systems thinking practitioner skillset is to have trust in the journey. On this occasion, the journey I had to trust was the journey towards writing a book. I would like to encourage other practitioners to get their stories heard. As such, I’m going to summarise some insights from the process that might be useful to you.
Why did I decide to write the book?
This is an easy one to answer. I was acutely aware that the extent of my systems practice experience was valuable. My blogs were being viewed by thousands of people across the world. However, not having a PhD meant I had no affiliation with a university (despite working for one) and therefore, no ‘official’ way to share my insights. I was also contacted by someone who alerted me to attempts being made to dampen my voice. They gave me some wise advice which I immediately put into practice. I contemplated that anyone trying to keep me quiet was clearly scared. That meant not only did I have something to say but that it was potentially powerful. Instead of getting angry about what I heard, I decided instead to channel my energy into making sure the story of my deep learning journey was recorded. Hence, I wrote the book. Those who tried to harm me were the catalyst for the energy it took to engage in the writing process. This is my first point for you – writing a book takes sustained energy. If you have passion, use it creatively to encourage yourself to embark on the journey.
Getting started
What are you passionate about? What do you want to say? This is where I started. I was passionate because I was not about to let anyone erase my story or the link between certain insights and my learning. I knew what I wanted to say and immediately made a note of the key messages I wanted to share. I also considered how I wanted people to feel when they read the book. I made a note of the key ethos of the book and the style of writing I wanted to engage in.
Theory/ practice/ story? What is your book?
This was quite hard to pin down and took a few iterations. I knew I wanted an engaging story. I also wanted people to see where my insights had come from and with that, to experience the learning journey that I had been on. I wrote a short description of the book, then a longer paragraph, then what I wanted it achieve, who my target audience were, what questions I sought to answer and the style and tone I would use.
Giving your book structure
Once I had the key ethos of the book, I started to decide on the structure. I had it in my mind like three acts of a play. Within each act were a series of chapters. I penned out the acts, the chapters, what messages I wanted to give in each chapter. I then decided which stories about my learning journey would give the key messages I wanted to share. Then came the number of pages and wordcount, so I could gauge whether I had enough content.
Using previous writing in the book
If you are self-publishing, as I did, you are in control so you can use what you want. I used a lot of my past blogs. Blogs can give valuable insights away and yet rarely do they get attributed to the author. I wanted to put mine together in a more formalised way. I also included some new content, for those who follow me and would be looking for something new/ additional. Don’t let your thoughts or writing go to waste – turn them into something.
Use an editor/ copywriter/ all-round advisor
I was extremely lucky in this respect. A good friend and ex colleague was now offering this service. We had worked together. She was part of my journey. There really was no better person to guide me. I would advise that even if you are self-publishing, this role is critical. Choose wisely. I got advice on style, making messages clearer, structure and most importantly….where I did not make sense to outside eyes and ears! It is easy to get so wrapped up in your writing that it only makes sense to you. The money this element costs is worth every penny and I would never embark on writing another book without this support.
Getting others to read your work
I also got friends to read the draft book. Friends who were not in my world of work. I didn’t tell them much about the book before they read it. I wanted to know what came across to them. Reconciling their feedback with what I had intended the key insights to be was crucial.
It is a long process
Writing your book is the easy part. Organising it, formatting it, getting it reviewed, making changes, tweaking, changing, repeating the formatting is a long process. You have to be dedicated and not be afraid to deal with the details. I always knew I could write the book (I have been writing short stories for years and love to write). I never thought I could understand the requirements of the self-publishing process. This was where my editor and advisor was an absolute gem. She helped me locate materials to guide me through the process.
Will people buy your book?
Don’t expect huge sales if you self-publish, especially if you are aiming at a specialist market, as I was. I got an early influx of sales and then it tailed off to a steady trickle. I don’t think I need to say here that you do not benefit from the full price of the book but instead receive a royalty. Unless you are a well known writer selling thousands of books, it isn’t going to make you money. It is better to be doing your writing for other reasons.
Was it worth it?
100% yes. I felt myself develop and grow during the process in two different ways. Firstly, my systems practice grew and developed as I went through the reflective process and recognised how far I had travelled. Secondly, writing a book itself was new to me and so I develop new skills along the way. For me, it was a life changing experience that I enjoyed and when I have the time and space, further books will emerge.
Why is it important that systems practitioners write books
I believe practitioners are the ones with the great systems thinking insights and in some cases, I know this for sure. They do not, however, have enough recognised outlets to share them. Without an affiliation to a university, academic publishing can be difficult. It is not acceptable, in my perspective, to believe that it is only academics who create, have insights or lead in the field. This is not always the case. They just have more outlets (journals etc) to make it look like the case. In my work and experiences, practitioners are at the cutting edge of systems practice. They are insightful, creative and moving things forwards. They just need the outlets to put their stuff out into the world. Self-publishing was, for me, one of the easiest ways to do it.
My final message
This is a short and direct message: If you are at all interested in writing, do it. Don’t hesitate and enjoy every minute of it.
It’s Sunday morning and I’m in my favourite place – my office. It’s warm and cosy. I’m surrounded by personal artefacts that have great meaning. I have plants and ambient lighting. I have a window and I can see trees and bushes and I can hear the birds on my roof. I have my books and my notepads and pens. I have music and my computer and I am doing the things that give me most joy (alongside swimming, which is my other love) – reading, learning and writing. My creative brain is alive and the possibilities endless.
I have just watched a TED talk by Susan Cain (2012) on the power of introverts and my heart came alive at the words, ‘put yourself in the zone of stimulation that works for you’. This……this place and this time is my place of stimulation and I love it. I love my solitude where I can think and contemplate and create.
But I am also a little frustrated. I am frustrated because consistently and persistently people tell me to ‘go out more’ ‘do more’ ‘be with people more’. But these things do not bring me pleasure. I usually just spend my time looking at the time, wondering when I can escape. I’m not shy, I don’t fear social judgement. Nor am I antisocial. I don’t hate people and there is nothing wrong with me. I just prefer my own zone of stimulation – my comfortable places where I can quietly contemplate.
I am often expected by others to be loud, prominent, be the talker in the room and yes, at times, I have to be this person to be able to do my work. This is not, however, my zone of comfort. As a systems thinker, I am cognizant of embracing multiple perspectives. So, who is considering my perspective? Who is allowing the more introverted systems thinkers to shine? Who is asking them what they think? Not many, I can tell you. Instead the masses prefer those with a charismatic personality, the talkers who seem to be taking action. But action without contemplation, as Cain (2012) tells us is not always the best way and those with the biggest voices are not generally those who get the best result.
So what happens when an introvert creates something exciting or gets big results? Disbelief, that’s what. People didn’t see where it came from, so they can’t believe it. Sadly, this is a common thing to see in workplaces. The challenge I put forward today is, who is listening to the introverted systems thinkers? Who is appreciating their creativity and who is inviting them in, in a way that works for them, rather than it only working for you? Imagine how much you are missing if you don’t create the right conditions for a more diverse group of thinkers, whose creativity emerges in different ways.
I’ve been liaising with a number of systems thinking practitioners lately who are new to the field or may still be going through their training. Many are keen to know what it’s really like to be a systems thinking practitioner. It isn’t a well-known profession, although there have been systems thinkers in existence probably for the whole of history. It isn’t a well-known profession because in the past it hasn’t been classed as a profession. Putting the debate about whether or not it should be a profession to one side (I will leave that for another day) I can tell about the context of my work and that of other practitioners I know.
Firstly, I should say that the definition and context of our work is very wide and varied. We might be someone who works in an organisation, doesn’t have ‘systems thinking practitioner’ in their official title but uses systems thinking in their work and has embedded systems thinking habits into their own way of being. We might be a scholar, someone with or working towards a Doctorate, who studies and/ or practices systems thinking. We might be an academic who teaches systems thinking. We might be one of the few who have a job title that states ‘systems thinking practitioner’. We might be someone working on systems change who clearly works in a systems thinking informed way but doesn’t hold a formal title of systems thinking practitioner. We might be a consultant who has a qualification in systems thinking. We might be a bit of all of these things. Generally, though, a systems thinking practitioner, who works professionally as such, is both qualified (often to postgraduate level) and experienced in the field.
And how do we carry out or work? Well, this too is very wide and varied. I’ve heard a lot of systems thinking practitioners in training or those aspiring to be systems thinking practitioners in the future believe that we’re given special projects to do. That they’re labelled as systems thinking, have a beginning and end and we are given the time and space to enact them as we see fit. This might be true sometimes but generally, the reality can be quite different. This is especially the case if we work as an employee in an organisation and we don’t have ‘systems thinking’ in the title of our job (and most people don’t). The reality is that we might work on several overlapping projects or programmes at the same time. We might be quickly moved around from project to project. We might start something and never get to finish it because the context has changed or because the actual change takes many years. We might be moved from department to department, from site to site from organisation to organisation. Just because you don’t have a separate systems thinking project, with a flag sticking in the top of it saying ‘systems thinking’, it doesn’t mean you’re not a systems thinking practitioner. I have tutored hundreds of people who have gained the MSc in systems thinking in practice who are now systems thinking practitioners but who have never had ‘systems thinking’ or ‘systems thinker’ in their official work title.
Usually a practitioner’s work is messy, boundaries change. We’re pulled in many different directions and at the same time. We might have to contend with a very frantic day to day operational management situation or a situation of high risk or anything where we have to give focused and targeted attention to something. Our systems thinking comes into play if and when the time is right. Then, we might take one bit of one approach, apply it, swiftly move on, apply something else. That’s part of our skill – to know what’s useful and when.
We might have to compromise around how we use our systems thinking to flex to the developing situation. Our practice is all different and might play out in very different ways. Of course, some people are asked to do specific systems thinking orientated projects or pieces of work but in my experience these happen far less frequently than the day-to-day application of systems thinking in an organisation that you might do as part of any job.
Remember, systems thinking is not an exclusive club. Anyone trying to make it such a thing are probably working towards their own self-promoting goals. Yes, there are qualifications that can give you the validation of your practice and these should be considered when hiring a systems thinking practitioner for a specific professional role. However, systems thinking is for everyone. It is a way of thinking that can be adopted by anyone who has the curiosity and determination to consider another way of thinking about complex situations.
Don’t be put off if you don’t have a specific ‘systems thinking’ titled project or piece of work. If you have the qualification and you can put systems thinking into practice, then you are in the same place as a lot of other practitioners. They key thing is to make it count. Apply systems thinking well and make a difference.
Over the last couple of months I have had a series of discussions with several students about their future as they move forwards with their systems practice. They are keen and eager to step forward in the world as systems thinking practitioners. There is only one problem……where do they get employment or how do they set up as independent businesses?
True, there are more jobs coming through for systems thinking practitioners nowadays, but still nowhere near enough. The field is dominated by gangs and cliques who look after one another and in some respects, systems thinking has gone feral. Generally, those not working in the field cannot tell the difference between those who look good and those who are good.
There is another issue at play, also. Organisations may say they want to employ systems thinkers but they give less thought about how they will accommodate them in an organisational context. By definition, systems thinkers think differently. They are excited by things others often cannot even see. They sometimes do not conform to the norm, preferring instead to be a bit of a maverick. They might hate routine and norms. If they are anything like me, they hate wasting time on trivialities. There has to be purpose and meaning in what they do. You cannot put them in a box, or you can be assured that they will fight their way out of it in record time.
I have experience of this myself. I don’t fit! Anywhere! I struggle with formal office environments where people tend to spend more time controlling each other (even though they think they don’t) and moulding everyone to a norm. Sometimes, it creeps in, bit by bit and before you know it you are one of the dull hidden gems, bored and despondent, looking for a way out.
This was one reason I went into consultancy and tutoring. For a different slant in my career. I soon, however, came up against the bitter competition in consultancy and witnessed more unethical practice than I ever want to see again.
So, what do we do? We educate and train people in systems thinking and then they don’t fit anywhere. To date, there are not enough employment avenues to accommodate them.
Then people ask how I managed to step into the world of systems thinking. When they hear how hard it was and what it really takes to stay afloat, some think twice about it. It was and is hard. Very hard. No-one sees the 18-20 hours days, 7 days a week, week after week, just to make ends meet. They don’t see the 4am starts and 5.30am trains when they read about your exploits online. They don’t see you leave the house at 4am and not return until midnight. They don’t see your fridge with empty shelves because you haven’t even had time to buy milk and the basic groceries for the last fortnight. I cannot express just how hard it can be and how dedicated you need to be to make it work.
How do we change this? How do we make room and employment for systems thinkers? Personally, I still think it is too soon. The outlets are not generally there. Yes, there are some outlets, but for the amount of practitioners we are educating and training, I hear of a far greater percentage who feel lost when it comes to their career, seemingly with nowhere to go that will accommodate the way we have educated them to think.
I do think the bigger systems thinking organisations who champion the discipline have a part to play here. How can they use their power to make a pathway for others to enter the field? What can they do to support those who want to fully step into it?
Some say that systems thinking is not a profession. It is a way of thinking that you use when doing other things. For example, you may be a health commissioner and you use systems thinking to enhance your commissioning practices.
Is it too early then? Is systems thinking still not in the place of it being a profession in its own right? There is an apprenticeship now but it is still very early days. In years to come it might be easier. People might have generally started to understand who and what systems thinkers are.
In the meantime, what do those of us in the field do? We are paving a way that will be easier for those who take the journey after us. At the moment though, the stories I hear in the field are of frustrated people who can see what they want but cannot quite put their hands on it.
Provided that the systems thinking practitioner has been appropriately trained and/ or educated in the field and has a degree of experiential learning, the value they bring to your workplace can be significant.
That value can be threefold
Value in helping you move towards your goal. They get stuff done.
Value generated in the way the systems thinking practitioner works with you. Their perspective and ways of thinking can open up value you never expected and take you to places you never contemplated.
Value for each individual and value generated in the relationships that are formed. Their thinking, the framings they use and the perspective they engage with generates value for them and for you. It also generates value in forming relationships as they reveal their authentic selves and encourage others to do the same.
Part of that value is in supporting you to achieve triple loop learning, ensuring that you consider efficacy, efficiency and effectiveness.
Single loop learning
Single loop learning is linked to efficacy and efficiency – this is where they help you to get things done. But, how do you know you are doing the right things?
Double loop learning
Double loop learning is linked to effectiveness. Systems thinking practitioners have a keen focus on effectiveness, so that you are not just achieving something, you have a greater chance of achieving the right thing. Systems thinking practitioners, however, go even further than this.
Triple loop learning
They help you to enter into triple loop learning. They are skilled in considering why you believe it to be the right thing. They question motivations, judgements and legitimacy and bring in a variety of perspectives to challenge mindsets, framings and decision making.
Despite popular belief, systems thinking practitioners are not all business consultants with fancy approaches and buzz words for you to jump on board with. Many are members of staff, working in organisations, often going largely unrecognised.
Systems thinking is a way of thinking about situations. It is the way of thinking that generates the value.
This year I have completed a three year evaluation of a community organising project. It was an interesting journey where I took a developmental evaluation approach with systems thinking.
Part of my considerations was to create effective conditions for the evaluation to be successful. My role was not as a first order, objective, dispassionate observer. I was an interconnected, embedded empathic member of the project team. I was the friendly challenger and critical friend. I was keen to demonstrate that I had as much care and passion for the project as the people living in the area in which the project was being carried out.
Being embedded within the evaluand
Being embedded with the evaluand was not an easy task. All of my interactions were online due to my geographical distance from the project. This meant I could not physically feel the atmosphere or walk around talking to people for myself. I was also unable to reach the wider community.
The challenges of the Covid 19 situation
Due to the constraints of the Covid 19 lockdown, I maintained contact with the evaluand via telephone, email and computer platforms such as Zoom. I attended meetings remotely and was accepted by the evaluand as a member of the team. Meetings attended on Zoom were particularly useful, as I was able to observe the dynamics in the room as well as hear the conversations.
Some of the remote ways of connecting with the evaluand were not successful. For example, I tried to run a focus group but only had one attendee. I also set up some creative and interactive exercises to draw out different perspective from the group on a Miro electronic whiteboard. I was not, however, able to get any input into this.
Working with the evaluand
During the evaluation, I was acutely aware of the pressures on the individuals involved in the project, especially around family commitments and work, so engaging without causing any additional stress was something I was particularly mindful of. What I found worked quite well were very short one-to-one phone calls or Zoom meetings. I found I could work these around the schedules of the evaluand and the interactions were not too taxing or imposing on their day. It also helped to maintain regular contact – little and often.
Providing reassurance to the evaluand
It was key to give reassurance about the positive elements of the project to the evaluand. They were doing some excellent work on forming relationships, working at multiple levels of recursion and building their own systemic sensibilities. I was able to reflect back scenes demonstrative of trust developing between members of the evaluand during meetings as stories and feelings were shared. I was also able to reflect back my observations of inner confidence growing as community leaders diligently led campaigns. There was also a role in offering a different perspective and/ or a different framing to the situation, bringing another dynamic into our collective consciousness for consideration.
Building trust with the evaluand
A condition for effective evaluation was trust. Trust between different members of the evaluand and trust between myself, as the evaluator, and the evaluand. I had one-to-one discussions with individual members which were confidential. I only disclosed that which they were happy for me to share.
Encouraging reflective conversations that enabled learning
The nature of the reflective conversations was that they were done with respect, rather than hard challenge.
Challenging my own evaluation practices – personal frames of reference and traditions of understanding
Personally, I bring several frames of reference into my evaluation that I need to be mindful of. They are that of a systems practitioner, a system changer and of my own experiences of creating the conditions for change and witnessing what I feel works and what does not. I also bring the frame of reference of a project and programme manager, a public service manager and an educator. All of these frames are involved in my perceptions of the project. I purposefully reflected on these and their potential impacts throughout the project, as I assisted the evaluand as they created value in the project.
Projection, perception and bias
With the above in mind, I was as careful as I could be of not projecting my feelings from other work I was involved in onto this project. I was consciously aware of my traditions of understanding and my frames of reference. I was trying hard not to be falsely positively biased. However, I acknowledge that I will have unconscious biases and areas of unknown that will impact on my evaluation practices.
Embodying STiP
It was imperative that as an evaluator, I worked with authenticity and integrity. I intended the evaluand to experience me as a person, not as a label as an evaluator. I put in significant effort to communicate in a way that worked for the people involved. I rarely, if ever, mentioned that I worked for a University. At times it was important to let the evaluand know that I was not employed by the commissioner of the evaluation but I was working on behalf of the project team, to help them as they enabled their project
Were the evaluand helping to shape the evaluation?
This was difficult due to the distance between us and there was the potential for more creative interaction. The evaluand were, however, shaping the evaluation because they are people and changeable and therefore, I flexed and blended with how they were moving and changing. They change, I change. I change, they change.
What was the impact of the evaluator being embedded in the project?
This is something only the evaluand can answer. Personally, I felt that the first couple of years of the project were more successful. In the final year, it felt like other pressures, such as the risk of losing funding before the project had achieved its goal, were at the forefront of people’s minds.
Did I enjoy the experience?
I enjoyed meeting and being involved with the evaluand. I liked their passion and their determination to move forwards. They achieved some great things. By the end of three years, it was definitely time for the evaluator to step back out and let them carry on with their excellent work.
It is not written in a technical or academic way, but in a way that I think will appeal to those who are interested in a practitioner’s journey. I cover what it has been like to venture into the world of work as a systems thinking practitioner – how systems thinking was received or wasn’t as the case might have been. I discuss the often talked about, but rarely written down, aspects of the journey.
It is a book of four distinct parts:
The first part is about the formative years of my systems practice and how I started to embed systems thinking concepts and habits into my practice. It is written in the style of a memoir of my experiences.
Part three is specifically about the practitioner’s journey. This is where I discuss some of the common things that systems thinking practitioners have to contend with. They are the things that people ask me about the most. The things people find difficult to deal with and the things that can put some people off practicing. Hopefully, by sharing stories about these things, it will encourage others to keep going with their own journey.
The final part is about the things I am contemplating now that I am on the next stage of my systems thinking and practice journey. What appeals to me as I am moving forward into a new place in my learning?
The book aims to give insights into the real on the ground experiences of a systems thinking practitioner. It is also aimed at encouraging others not only to continue with their own journey, but to find ways to share it. Some of the greatest value that systems thinking practitioners can bring to a situation is often not talked about. Some of it is exposed in the book as I celebrate my learning journey and the wisdom of those I have engaged with along the way.
Crossing the Bridge – coming soon on Amazon. Exact launch date to be confirmed.
systems practitioner Ltd 