CONTEXT
GROWTH AREAS
SUCCESSES
OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACTION
CHALLENGES
FUTURE CONVERSATIONS
Systems Change practices are still ripe for new forms of innovation, collaboration and impact.
Adopting a mindset of growing together:
Many philanthropic donors, multi-stakeholder conveners, and entrepreneurs are on a learning journey to understand how to best leverage these new approaches. Some started decades ago, some more recently, but many have blind spots and are working to find a balance between flexibility and rigor in their practice.
In this time of change, it is essential to understand that incompatibility with funding partners will sometimes be inevitable and to respond with acceptance and learning, rather than taking it personally and being angry about rejection. Even in cases where there may indeed be alignment and a mutual understanding of the value of the work, a given funder may still choose to prioritize something else for any multitude of strategic or operational reasons.
““We need to find alignment with our partners to advance our vision. We try to have open, honest conversations, and if people don’t see value in what we’re doing then they’re still welcome to be included, but we stop prioritizing their involvement.””
Exercising empathy for each other’s constraints
There is a general lack of understanding about why and how foundations make decisions - the nuance of internal dynamics, staff, systems, HR, Legal, the Board, etc. Foundations sometimes have a view of many actors in a space that individual grantees, institutions, and initiatives might not have, and they might be tasked with holding that information carefully and responsibly. While transparency is often sought, building trusting relationships requires foundations to exercise judgment and nuance around such information. Exercised responsibly, foundations’ use of this information can be pivotal to success. Exercised poorly, it can be viewed as manipulative or can damage change efforts and organizations.
Grant-seekers for systemic change face similar constraints; for example, sometimes relying on volunteer efforts to shape an initiative, holding community information responsibly, while ensuring that efforts are shaped organically based on real community priorities and systemic change needs. As these people try to gain support, they are aiming to uphold the integrity of the complexity they’ve witnessed while shaping up next steps which appeal to funding priorities.
We need to have empathy for each other’s situations, seeking to understand strategic alignment authentically and have empathy for the boundaries each party is working within.
““I went into my work with foundations thinking “I really need to get them to give us more money,” and I came out thinking “Actually they’re practitioners too.””
Building specific new capacities to see and act in systems:
The intellectual understanding of the need for systems change is different from the capacity to practice it. There is a need for more capacity building to build all the different kinds of skills needed to succeed and a need to recognize where existing capacity exists but is not being leveraged.
““We need to build competencies for this work - not just for a single person, but as a group as this is very challenging work.” ”
““We’re starting to realize that observation, seeing the force-fields that govern systems, agility, and people who can play nicely with others... there’s a lot of skills required.” ”
““The community is where the capacity lies for resilience over time. When things get tough, people learn together, and the community absorbs the intelligence being collectively generated. Come back to supporting people to thrive in their systems work in the long term. This is a necessary, basic aspect of an ecosystem which supports system entrepreneurship. Community is a sponge - you fill it with insight and skill, and it grows full and heavy - and then you can squeeze that juice onto things that pop up.“ ”
““People want inclusive and diverse ideas, but people with resources are not willing to build a pipeline of people to do that. We need to get a better handle of what it actually costs to produce a large number of great concepts - we need more fellowships, more capacity building.” ”
Action orientation rather than research / academic orientation when approaching large-scale systemic work
““I don’t want to be recognized for supporting the writing of research papers; I want to find a non-academic identity.” ”
There is a need for new narratives around evaluation and adopting the tools we have now. Some tools are there, but they aren’t being adopted widely yet.
““When funders ask, ‘how will you measure’, many people say ‘it’s emergent, we can’t guarantee anything’. That’s only partly true. I think a lot of systems people use complexity as an excuse to not be rigorous about measuring impact + results. We say there’s a connection between activities and outcomes. We can’t guarantee that a link has happened, but we aim to have some sophistication around evaluation methods.””
There is a need for new narratives around when evaluation approaches need to be created: before the work begins, or as a phase of the work?
““We got an innovation grant to fund us to grow what we’re doing around the world. The review board applied project management questions to the application. Shortly after they told us we were successful, they asked us: you need to have a clear evaluation plan, milestones, metrics, etc. And I said: yes we’ll do that after you give us the money. This is part of the work, not what happens before the work starts.””
Ensuring quality in systems work
Systems approaches are more mature than they appear to those less familiar with them, but they may still need additional rigor and development, especially in the areas of impact measurement, explaining their work, and creating communities of support.
In many respects, we’re still learning how to ensure quality.
““There is this idea that we need “gold standard” systems practitioner work right now - to set an example for what is needed across the world, with a handbook and guidelines. This is valuable because some people are running “labs” that are not very good. But it’s not the only way forward. We still need QUANTITY as well as quality. We don’t know the best way to do this work yet. We still need edge experimentation. There are not enough examples to actually lift the best practice blueprint off the page yet.””
““For me, it’s always a bit sad when I’m asked about success cases because I always think of one that’s ten years old.“”