I have a theory for system change

First, challenge everything

In order to change a system, we need to shine a light on the dynamics of the system we want to change. To understanding the fundamental mindsets at play, and the systemic lock in that might be occuring we need to dig deep into all layers of the system. Therefore it is vital that we challenge everything, the tangible and intangible, the obvious and the completely obscure.

New narratives we actually want to live in

Stories are how humans make sense of the world, sitting behind the cultures and economies that form our societies and relationship to the natural world. To create change, we must create stories of futures where our relationship to eachother is collaborative and equal, stories that depict healthy, symbiotic relationships with nature and are ever evolving. New narratives give us a vision by which we can guide our decisions and actions today.

Connected Ecosystems with harmonious goals

Systems are about the relationships between parts of systems, mostly this comes down to people. As people are complex, we tend to have multiple ways of seeing the world and what future we are working towards. That’s fine, diversity is good. Yet with global problems we face such as climate change and biodiversity loss, aligning of common goals that benefit all of humanity is vital.

New thinking needs affective learning

For radically different systems it would be mad to think we can change it with the same mindset of the dominant system we are trying to change. To me, it’s clear we need of new ways of learning to form new ways of thinking. By engaging people in experiential learning, learning can happen holistically, using pedagogy that incorporates play, creativity, collaboration, self-reflection and learning by doing.

And finally, be more like nature.

These aspects of change can be seen across all of my work. Nature is a living system, its emergent and chaordic character leads to continuous evolution and change. The fundamental structures of nature can be used as guidelines for how we might rethink the human world, a world based on reciprocity, place, self-organisation, (bio)diversity and regeneration.