Systems Thinking - Changemaker Superpowers

Ever feel like your nonprofit team is on a treadmill - tackling tasks but never quite moving forward? You're passionate about the mission but bandwidth is limited. Imagine if your team could build capabilities to manage foreseeable challenges more effectively, leaving more resources free to handle the unexpected.

This is where systems thinking and skills come in. By understanding the interconnected parts of your organization, you can identify root causes and craft effective solutions. Think of your nonprofit as an ecosystem, where each element - people, practices, tools, insights - plays a crucial role in the overall health. Systems thinking equips you to see how those elements interact and systems skills help you and your team better navigate those complexities.

Key levers of change, such as observing and sensing, illuminating, communication, decision making, leadership, education, and curiosity, are essential tools for fostering change and growth. These levers represent a set of actions and skills that organizations utilize to implement changes effectively.

This is where systems thinking and skills prove beneficial. Instead of simply addressing a symptom - akin to reviving a wilting plant - it's about comprehending the broader context. Understanding how factors like sunlight, water, and even neighboring plants contribute to the problem. This holistic approach creates the space to thoughtfully diagnose issues, key to building your "change muscles."

At Brico Works, we will take time to dig into each of these concepts on their own. This will be an overall introduction to the concepts to help connect the dots.

A Journey to Simple Systems Thinking

To help myself and my team navigate the waters of complexity and unknown, I have been known to pull out a Venn diagram or two in my day. One particular version that has made many appearances is called the Golden Triangle, but the version I’m sharing today is an evolved version which speaks to both the art and the science of systems thinking and how passionate human beings interact in a complex organization to do really hard things.

💡 The Golden Triangle is a fundamental concept in business management that emphasizes the interconnectedness of people, process, technology, and data and it asserts that successful projects or business operations hinge on the harmonious integration of these three components.

Even as a “systems thinker” the concept in the wild can feel like something only an engineer should handle, but hopefully through this upgraded model we can make it approachable and applicable to your work.

Elements of The Changemakers Toolkit

The Changemakers Toolkit is comprised of four essential elements: People, Practices, Tools, and Insights, each playing a pivotal role in fostering change within an organization.

People: The heart of our work, propelling our mission. Encompassing staff, beneficiaries, stakeholders, funders, donors, partners and more. People are not cogs in the wheel, but rather are the heartbeat of the organization. They embody the needs, motivations, and potential of our team, clients, and stakeholders. Ensuring people feel connected, safe, and like they can build a foundation of trust is core. People are culture, mission, etc.

Practices: More than just a process, this involves intentional habits, daily engagement, and skill growth. By showing up daily to practice and improve, we fuse insights and teamwork to constantly refine and elevate our work, using change as a catalyst for growth.

Tools: Tooling is the strategic selection and integration of technology and methodologies that supercharge your organization's ability to act and innovate. It’s about choosing the right mix of tools and practices that not only enhance efficiency but also foster creativity and collaboration, ensuring your team has the cutting-edge capabilities needed to thrive in an ever-changing landscape. And sometimes cutting-edge means simple.

Insights: Insights is about up-leveling your data game, transforming raw information into actionable insights that guide decisions and catalyze change. It goes beyond mere data collection, emphasizing the importance of learning, understanding, and sharing knowledge across the organization to navigate complexity and make informed choices that propel meaningful progress.

Purpose: The purpose is the organization's reason for existence, guiding its direction, influencing culture, and shaping strategies. It cultivates a sense of belonging among team members and aligns with stakeholders. Even on a small scale, a clear purpose drives change, aligns it with the organization's mission, and fosters team commitment.

The Levers of the Changemakers Toolkit

The Levers of the Changemakers Toolkit are the essential tools that facilitate and drive change within an organization. They include observing and sensing, illuminating, communication, decision making, leadership, education, and curiosity. Each lever represents a unique action or skill that is crucial in implementing changes effectively and fostering growth within your organization. In the upcoming sections, we dive deeper into understanding these levers and how to utilize them in your changemaking journey.

Level One Magic: Systems Check

Just as in the first level of Super Mario Bros, we need to develop some fundamental skills on how to effect change. The key level 1 capability in changemaking is a systems check through observation and awareness building with your new system scaffolding in mind. Consider any problem within your mission-based organization. When you think about solutions, do they take into account all four key elements - People, Practices, Tools, and Insights? Often, we might hastily categorize an issue as a "people" problem, when in reality, it might stem from a mix of practices, tools, and insights that hinder people from performing their jobs effectively.

To effectively enact change, it's crucial to consider all key elements - People, Practices, Tools, and Insights. Quick fixes often address only one aspect, while a holistic approach provides more comprehensive solutions. For example, a nonprofit struggling with donor engagement could benefit not just from a new CRM system (Tools), but also from staff training (Practices), understanding the system's value (People), and using CRM data (Insights). Similarly, a high staff turnover issue could be addressed not just by increasing wages (People), but also by improving onboarding programs (Practices), peer support systems (Tools), and using exit interview data (Insights). Addressing challenges in this holistic way leads to more effective solutions.

Systems Check Cheatsheet

💡 The "systems check" is a moment to pause and check in either related to a problem or at during a transition. It should help create more awareness around the system and reveal areas that need attention or improvement related to the problem.

PEOPLE: Who are the key individuals involved in this specific problem? What are their needs and motivations related to this issue?

PRACTICES: What are the current practices or routines that may be contributing to this problem? Are they effective or do they need to be adjusted?

TOOLS: What tools or resources are we currently using to address this problem? Are they beneficial or do they need to be modified or replaced?

INSIGHTS: What data or insights do we have about this problem? How can these insights inform our problem-solving approach?

Level Two Magic: Illuminating Problems & Opportunities

Just as a gardener needs to understand the root cause of a plant's ill health, organizations also need to delve deeper into their challenges. At this level, we focus on building capabilities around Illuminating Problems and Opportunities through specific problem definition and root cause analysis.

Often, we tend to address symptoms rather than the actual problems. For instance, if an organization is struggling with high staff turnover, the immediate response might be to increase salaries or benefits. While this might be a part of the solution, it may not address the root cause of the problem. Perhaps the underlying issue is a toxic work culture or lack of career development opportunities.

To effectively address issues, we need to illuminate the problem, i.e., bring it into the light and examine it from all angles. This involves asking probing questions, challenging assumptions, and gathering data to gain a fuller understanding of the issue at hand.

Problem Illumination

💡 Here are some steps to help illuminate problems and opportunities:

Problem Definition: Clearly define the problem. This is not as simple as it sounds. It involves understanding the difference between the symptoms and the actual problem. Activate your inner Olaf and ask, “Yeah, why?”   5 times.

Gather Data: Collect relevant data about the problem. This could be quantitative data (like employee turnover rates) or qualitative data (like employee or customer feedback).

Analyze Data: Analyze the data to identify patterns, trends, or anomalies. This will help you to better understand the problem.

Root Cause Analysis: Use techniques like the '5 Whys' or 'Fishbone Diagram' to identify the root cause of the problem. This involves identifying the underlying issues that are causing the problem.

Identify Opportunities: Once the problem and its root cause have been identified, look for opportunities to address it. This could involve changing processes, improving communication, or providing additional training to staff.

By illuminating problems and identifying their root causes, we can design more effective solutions that address the underlying issues rather than just the symptoms. This approach is key to building a resilient and adaptable organization that can navigate the complexities of change.

Level Three Magic: Creating Clarity & Action

The third level in our journey to change mastery focuses on creating clarity and sparking action through key levers of change that often clog up the works including decision-making, experimenting, communication, and learning. This stage is all about being intentional and transparent about how we decide, test and take the insights we've gathered and refined in the previous levels and using them to drive effective and meaningful change.

Decision Making

At this level, decision-making becomes an essential tool. We've compiled insights, identified problems and opportunities, and now, we must make choices about how to proceed. This includes deciding which problems to tackle first, which solutions to implement, and how to allocate resources effectively. Successful decision-making involves weighing the potential impact of different choices, considering the available resources, and aligning decisions with the organization's mission and goals.

Experimenting

Creating change often involves embracing a degree of uncertainty. We can't always predict the outcomes of our actions, which is why experimenting becomes a crucial capability at this level. This might involve piloting new programs, testing out different communication strategies, or trying new fundraising approaches. The key is to treat these experiments as learning opportunities, gathering data, and refining our approach based on what we learn.

Communication

Effective communication is key to bringing about change. It's not enough to make decisions or try new things; we also have to communicate these changes to our team, our stakeholders, and the communities we serve. This involves not just sharing information, but also fostering dialogue, encouraging feedback, and building a shared understanding of why we're making changes and what we hope to achieve. Ensuring we share the “why” behind the change and being authentic in our communications is essential.

Learning

Finally, learning is a critical capability at this level. As we make decisions, experiment with new approaches, and communicate our actions, we also need to be constantly learning. This means not just learning from our successes, but also our failures. It means being open to feedback, willing to adjust our course when necessary, and always being on the lookout for new insights that can help us improve.

By honing these capabilities, we can create clarity around our goals and our path forward, and start taking concrete actions to bring about change. We move from being reactive to proactive, and from feeling overwhelmed by change to feeling empowered to shape it.

Embracing Change as a Catalyst for Growth

Effecting change in mission-based organizations involves understanding and leveraging key elements - People, Practices, Tools, and Insights - and skillfully using the levers of change. Here, we've outlined the importance of each element and how they interact to form a resilient, adaptable organization. People are the heartbeat of the organization, Practices define our daily operations, Tools empower us to carry out our work effectively, and Insights guide our decision-making process.

We've also discussed the crucial levers of change - Observing and Sensing, Illuminating, Communication, Decision making, Leadership, Education, and Curiosity. These levers serve as critical tools in enacting meaningful change, enabling us to navigate complex situations, and fostering growth in the organization.

Embracing change is more than just implementing new strategies or tools - it's about creating a culture that values learning, adaptation, and growth. It's about shifting from a reactive mindset to a proactive one, where change is not seen as a disruption, but as an opportunity for improvement and innovation.

As we move forward, let's remember that change is not a destination but a journey. It's an ongoing process that requires constant observation, adaptation, and learning. And in this journey, our greatest assets are our people, our practices, our tools, and the insights we gather along the way. With these elements in our toolkit, we're not just surviving change - we're thriving in it.