Coherence creates leverage
Five Lessons from System Shifters
Helping people to find a sense of coherence in the way they work together and what they are working for, is especially powerful in complex systems, in which there are many players, sometimes pulling in different directions. People who shift systems help to provide a new sense of coherence. That is the third of five lessons we’ve drawn from our Learning Festival Making the System Shift, which brought together more than sixty system shifters from around the world. Links in the text will take you to videos of the relevant sessions. The first lesson was to start from the possibility, not the problem. The second lesson was to see the big in the small: how small initiatives carry the kernel of an alternative system.
Lesson three: Coherence creates leverage
“When a system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence have the capacity to shift the entire system.” That insight from the complexity scientist Ilya Prigogine articulates one of the main lessons of our Festival: at a time of confusion and chaos coherence is power.
Coherence, making sense of how many threads come together and how they could be woven differently, is the main leverage that system shifters have; it is how a small initiative can have an influence over a much bigger system, especially one which finds itself at sea. System shifters simplify complex and sometimes bewildering developments into a shared narrative of change, which makes sense of where we are, why we have to change course and the direction we should be heading in.
Systems are complex. As Melanie Goodchild, founder of the Turtle Island institute reminded us: systems are relational, they bring together many players, each with their own goals and interests, from social entrepreneurs and investors, to policy makers and public servants. Shifting a system requires many players to make complementary changes in how they work, what they count as success and what they invest in. System shifters help bring about this change by generating a shared narrative which enables many actors to come together to change services, law, policy, culture, public conversation, institutions and technology.
There are three dimensions to shared coherence: where you’ve come from, where you are now and where you want to be headed..
First, system shifters help to create a shared history of how the system came to be the way it is. That shared picture has to be assembled from many different vantage points, including from the lived experience of those who work in the system and those who rely upon it. This shows the system is not a fact of nature but a joint creation.
Second, system shifters help make sense of the current, usually messy and confusing context which people are trying to make sense of. Old systems can be under growing strain and yet prove immensely tenacious; promising alternatives often disappoint and fail before they gain traction. This picture of mounting frustration makes the case for change, from many vantage points: staff, users, managers, funders.
Third, system shifters see pathways forward which trace the contours of the future. Steve Jobs famously said that innovators can only join up to dots backwards: making sense of what they were doing only in retrospect. System shifters have to join the dots up forwards, spotting how to move towards a shared goal in a fog of uncertainty.
How do system shifters create this sense of coherence, about the past, present and future, across the many players in a system? They are convenors, advocates and storytellers.
Convenors
Convenors play a critical role: bringing people together to create shared understanding, ambitions and commitments to action. System change is so difficult because funders invest in the dots, whether that’s a company, a charity , a programme or initiative; they need to invest in the people who join up the dots as well.
These are people like Elana Ludman from the Graham Boeckh Foundation in Canada who has devised a way to convene local actors, public, private and non-profits, to create new integrated mental health systems for young people. The approach has been adopted and adapted in provinces across the country.
They take an inclusive and critical approach to convening. If they convened only existing players within the system, the discussion would reinforce the conventional assumptions and perspectives of those in positions of power. To generate change convening has to strengthen voices which have been neglected.
Advocates
That is why system shifters are both convenors and advocates. They are trusted and cooperative, yet committed to change. They are not just neutral facilitators. They convene with commitment.
When Jeff Cyr and his team launched Raven Indigenous Capital they thought they would be in the dot business: a social impact fund investing in indigenous businesses across North America. They quickly found that to generate a pipeline of deals they needed to foster a community of entrepreneurs, organised around distinctive indigenous values, which they could articulate confidently to an investment system steeped in the language of shareholder value. Cyr started off thinking he was an investor. He came to realise he needed to look after and advocate for an entire ecosystem which could articulate indigenous values and perspectives to the mainstream finance system. “The more we put our values at the heart of our work, the more interesting we become to the people investing in our fund.” he says.
Storytellers
System shifters help to craft a shared narrative of change. Narratives of system change are not stories of heroic individuals whose exploits can never be matched. They are narratives that people can make their own. That means they have to be as invitational as they are inspirational. They invite people to be part of a larger change. That means they have to be open to slightly different interpretations, so they can be told and retold in slightly different ways to connect with audiences with differing interests and vantage points.
Rod Allen, a former deputy minister in the government of British Columbia explained how his team had patiently worked with different constituencies in the education system – teachers, principals, school district leaders, politicians, parents, employers, students – to find the right version of the overarching story of system change which would appeal to each audience.
Ella Saltmarshe, an expert in the role of narrative in system change, drawing on the work of Alex Evans and the Collective Psychology group, gave us some practical tips in how to shape narratives that create a “larger us.” Anne Bergith-Sorenson, from the Homes for All coalition, which convenes actors across the Danish housing system to end homelessness, for example spoke about how a shared narrative has to be generous to the role played by all players in bringing about change. It does not help if one hogs the limelight. The Our Town initiative in Australia, which is orchestrating a process of bottom up renewal in indigenous communities, told us one sign of change was when new stories of how things were getting better began to emerge and spread across the community. Beth Smith from the Cynefin Centre outlined their sense-maker methodology for understanding change in complex systems which relies on mass storytelling by many people involved.
Our societies are embarking on profound transitions in the way our economies work, with the rise of artificial intelligence and the urgent need to address climate change while rewriting social contracts to ensure greater social justice. Those transitions threaten to be disruptive and dislocating. The antidote to chaos and confusion is coherence. That is what system shifters have to offer.
Robin Hacke, from The Centre for Community Investing, which supports disinvested communities in the US to create ambitious plans for renewal, puts it this way: “Resources follow coherence.” People invest in places where the community has a coherent, shared story to tell of the future they want to create. That’s the theme of the fourth lesson, next week: how to make sure that money and resources follow purpose, rather than the other way around.
Who do you want to bring together to create a shared story of the history and the future of the system?
What invitation is your narrative making, to whom, to be part of what change?
Who can take on aspects of the role of convenor to help foster coherence?
