To shift the system, you have to know the system
If you're involved in creating change in the world, then you're also engaged in transforming systems. Our world is made up of interconnected systems - whether they’re the orderly structures that feel very ‘system-like’, or the messy, unpredictable dynamics that might not look like systems at all.
To put it another way: Families are a system. The Kardashians are a family. Ergo, systems can be chaotic.
If you’re faced with a complex problem it makes sense to start by understanding the system that problem exists in. But mapping and comprehending an intricate web of causal relationships is never easy, especially for those of us who like to take potential solutions out of the theoretical and into the real world as quickly as possible.
So, this month’s Cognitive Download is a look at how we at Brink tend to make sense of these kinds of knotty systems in a way that’s practical and enlightening and which can create alignment and collaboration, not confusion and division.
Getting to know your system
The first step to making sense of a system is to narrow your focus down to the system you’re dealing with. Knowing that a system is "an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organised in a way that achieves something," (as the pioneering systems thinker, Donella Meadows defined it) is useful, but that doesn’t don’t really help anyone looking to tackle the specific, messy system in front of them.
When we first began work on the Oxygen CoLab to address the lack of medical oxygen in low resource settings, we made the reasonable assumption that we’d be working within the healthcare system. It took us a while to understand that it was actually the manufacturing and service ecosystem that would give us the most opportunities to create real impact.
To get to that insight we had to begin defining the systems in front of us in a way that could help us see past the obvious assumptions. Fortunately, every system shares a few consistent characteristics that can be used to make them feel far less amorphous and unknowable, and to start pinpointing the opportunities and value they contain:
Boundaries: Distinguish what’s inside the system from what’s outside.
Interconnections: Highlight how different parts of the system interact.
Leverage Points: Identify areas where small actions can create significant impacts.
Barriers and gaps: Recognise blockers that can hinder progress or change.
Nesting: Understand how systems exist within larger systems (think of the heart and blood vessels: systems within the larger system of your body).
We find that having this kind of outline makes it much easier to think about a system in a way that feels manageable and finite. But a system isn't merely a collection of characteristics. The most dynamic and powerful components of any system are people.
Why systems mapping should be an inside job (🐘)
When your aim is to simplify and genuinely understand a system, it’s tempting to zero in on one element, like a policy or product. But inevitably this means overlooking the larger dynamics at play and reducing the real life humans in the system to simple ‘beneficiaries’ or ‘workers’.
A behavioural lens means not viewing individuals as isolated actors, and remembering that all humans share a commonality: we are shaped by our context. Social norms, policies, cultural cues and even weather significantly influence our behaviour. It’s often these ‘invisible’ factors that get neglected when trying to shift a system, but these are the ones that can have the greatest effect.
In our experience, the best way to genuinely understand an interconnected ecosystem and gain an overview of these unseen factors, is not from the outside looking in, but by collectively mapping it from within the system itself. With the people in that system.
Taking a collective approach to systems means looking at the system from multiple angles, and collectively finding the best places (yes, plural) to focus for maximum impact. A well-known Indian parable illustrates the point nicely: five blind men encounter an elephant and each touches a different part to discern what it is:
"An elephant is smooth and hard, like bone," says the man who grasps its tusk.
"Nonsense, an elephant is soft like leather," claims the man who feels its ear.
"You're both wrong; an elephant is rough like a tree," asserts the man who touches its leg.
The men argue passionately, each convinced of their correctness while failing to see the broader picture.
This parable underscores three common pitfalls in systems thinking:
Rejecting Contradictory Data: We often dismiss information that doesn’t align with our beliefs and allow conflicts to stifle constructive conversations
Ineffective Communication: We tend to rely on inadequate descriptors, like using data (or in this story, touch), when other forms of expression (like visual representation or storytelling) might be more effective.
Seeking a single source of truth: We forget that collective intelligence that’s diverse and at times contradictory builds up a much richer picture of reality. Different and divergent perspectives are a strength and an asset.
More than a map
Collective, inside-out systems mapping isn't about creating a perfectly accurate representation of a system. It’s about cultivating a shared understanding and mindset that can guide collective action.
When Brink brought together previously siloed institutions working on the problem of oxygen provision, we didn’t just create a map of the landscape we were working in. We also created a joint understanding of the problem space and the evidence gaps, collectively defined an ambitious shared goal, and started the process of cultivating psychological safety across the group.
Taking a human-centric approach to systems thinking allows us to understand a system through its people, and their context. By doing this it makes it much easier to go beyond superficial fixes obvious solutions and forge lasting, impactful change.
Your Cognitive Booster Shot 💉
Each issue we’ll be asking a member of the Brink team to select their favourites from all the articles, book recommendations and other nuggets of wisdom that have made their way around the team over the past few weeks. Making the selection this week is Flic Burgess one of our London-based Innovation Managers.
Blue Machine by Helen Czerski
I grew up near the sea where I spent hours playing in the waves, collecting shells and hunting for crabs. More recently, I’ve started to take surfing lessons which has forced me to realise that I know very little about how the ocean actually works! I’m really enjoying learning from Helen Czerski as she explores the engine that drives our ocean planet.
The Pharmacy that Dispenses Poems Instead of Medicine
What’s your ailment… heartbreak, melancholy, climate anxiety? This article caught my eye this week about a pharmacy that dispenses poems instead of medicine. In my previous career as a teacher, I loved getting young people to encounter poetry as a tool to process emotions. I love this concept store.
Brinksters recently found out that our own Dave is also a screenwriter alongside his wife! This week we were lucky enough to go and see Dave’s film, The Assessment. It’s set in a dystopian future where the state decides whether or not couples can have children. I work in education so I'm constantly thinking about how to measure skills and knowledge, and this dark comedy left me with a ton of questions.
Dive deeper
To find out more about taming, understanding and leveraging the systems that make up the world, take a look at these links:
Dancing with Systems is a fantastic and beautiful essay (yes, a beautiful essay about system thinking - it can be done!) by Donella Meadows, in which Meadows stresses that, even though the future can’t be predicted, it can be “envisioned and brought lovingly into being”.
This blog post from the early days of the Oxygen CoLab contains screenshots of the maps we created of the oxygen concentrator landscape, while this follow up post shows the different actors and gatekeepers that would need to be engaged in order to create a solution.
The inspiration for applying the elephant parable to systems thinking came from this post by former Facebook Product Design VP, Julie Zhuo, in which she applies it to some common mistakes teams make in using data.
In 2021 (i.e. the middle of the pandemic) the investor and innovator Chris Tooley wrote this article for the World Economic Forum about how systems thinking can drive innovation even (or maybe especially) during times of uncertainty.
There are currently 1162 of you who subscribe to this newsletter. 1162 is the year Genghis Khan was born. One of the more positive innovations credited to GK is the creation of the first international postal system. That feels very apt for a newsletter which goes out to people across Europe, the US, Africa and beyond. We don’t have any subscribers in Iceland yet though. If you want to help us out with that, then click this button and share this issue as far and wide as you can.
If you’ve got an idea for a future issue of this newsletter, or a story about when you have leveraged collective wisdom in your own work, then you can email us on editor@hellobrink.co.
See you next month!