Systems can be changed

Hi,

It’s the end of week 3 and only 1 week to go! It’s been incredible reading your posts; to get a glimpse into how you are thinking about the systems around you and your challenge. You have seen how the systems in place can help or hinder us. Some of you have even been asking people in organizations questions about why certain systems still exist or whether there are alternatives. It’s really inspiring!

As you have noticed, many of the systems around us need to shift from linear, take, make, waste systems to systems based on something more circular, nature-based, and even regenerative instead of destructive. There are many people out there working on this and many governments (national and local) have begun supporting circular economy action plans or initiatives like Doughnut Economics.

Have you seen The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard? She gives a great perspective on the systems around consumption. She has started a whole movement around it and has made videos on different topics, including changemaking and solutions. One important take-away from The Story of Stuff, is that systems usually deliver what they are designed to. That means if we want our systems to deliver different things, we have to design them differently.

We often think of systems as stuck in stone, as the way things are. But they aren’t, they can change, and they have – just look at the changes in the last century. Our co-founder Karen O’Brien, wrote a piece about how thinking of climate change and the systems that are perpetuating it as relationship problem, might open up different ways of thinking about how we solve it.

And in her recent book, You Matter More Than You Think: Quantum Social Change for a Thriving World, Karen draws on concepts from quantum physics, suggesting that social structures 1) are not «real» in the classical sense and 2) do not exist above and beyond individuals and their practices. These practices, created by shared mental states, have material manifestaions and consequences.

She goes on to say, that the things we value, create different ‘social waves’ which manifest different values in our systems: «A social wave function that recognizes the value of diversity will collapse into a very different reality than one that emphasizes homogeneity. Similarly, a social wave function that values equity and sustainability will manifest a different world from one that emphasizes greed and exploitation.»

As the quote in the image above by Donella Meadows, a leading systems thinker, suggests, some of the things which are valuable and important for a sustainable and equitable future, are not easy to define or measure in our current systems, but it is important that we keep trying. What kind of systems would you like?

Enjoy the last week! We are going deeper into the personal sphere, the world of values, beliefs and assumptions, mindsets, and worldviews.

Best wishes

The cCHANGE Team