2 Managing change with others
Effecting change for the better usually means working with others – often across organisational ‘silos’ or boundaries, or amongst diverse stakeholders – as well as managing our interactions with the wider world. When you work with others your own experience, including how you understand and interpret what is around you, becomes even more important than when acting alone. This is because:
- you will be required to communicate with others about your experience and understanding
- others who are involved will have different experiences and thus understandings from you – you will need to appreciate the differences
- those involved will have a different perspective on any given situation and, unless you become aware of and respond to this, it is likely that you will not work well together or end up creating change that is not very useful
- to effect change you usually need to incorporate the understanding of others into your own experience in a manner that acknowledges and respects the understandings of others.
Activity 5 Culturally feasible change
Systems thinking in a process of rigorous inquiry into particular situations that are of concern can reveal what actions might be systemically desirable. But just because a systemic inquiry shows a set of joined-up actions to be systemically desirable does not mean that taking those actions is culturally feasible. Politics, power, history, vested interests, differing worldviews, structural and organisational inertia and so on may constrain actions that are systemically desirable.
The unsustainable level of carbon emissions associated with our current lifestyle, and the ongoing and unprecedented climate change associated with it, provide a clear example of a complex situation where there is widespread agreement about several actions that would be systemically desirable. Nonetheless, we collectively stick to a course of action that is expected to lead to catastrophe because the actions that would be systemically desirable are not culturally feasible.
Can you think of another example of this tension or contradiction? You can choose another global issue or alternatively you can think about an example relevant to your country, your community or your own professional experience. Once you have identified a relevant situation, make notes on the following, which may be useful for other activities in this course:
- What is the situation?
- What will happen if systemic change is not enacted?
- What is the systemically desirable change?
- Why is it not culturally feasible?
Although change is difficult when systemic desirability and cultural feasibility are not aligned, it is often the case that inaction is not an option and a STiP practitioner must be able to manage this tension. What is considered culturally feasible is subject to change and may be influenced by the learning induced by the systemic inquiry process itself – either through use of the findings in some form of communication or possibly by participation of the key decision makers in the inquiry process itself.
The actions required to address a complex, uncertain situation, although not culturally feasible at the moment, might act as the trigger for setting up and undertaking a systemic inquiry or co-inquiry. In other words, joint learning or inquiry can change how situations are perceived and thus what is or is not systemically desirable, and further through that process can change what is or is not culturally (and politically) feasible.