A Call to Systems
Bringing systems understanding, and self-reflection, into the spotlight
Systems understanding is a skill-set that is needed in these times. Like right now, right now.
Without it, we stay divided.
Without it, we spend all our energy focused on trying to help those who have been left out, or kicked out, of the current systems, while enabling the system to keep kicking out others.
Without it, we are more likely to repeat the systems flaws over and over, recreating the same problems in new clothing.
It’s time we learn new ways to see the world remember old ways to see the world and bring them back into these new times.
A contribution to complex thinking
In these complex times I hear lots of people saying things like “We just need to fight harder!” Do we? That sounds like a Cold War escalation strategy to me….
Maybe, instead of fighting harder, blaming others, and staying focused on the harmful events we see on the surface, we need to take care of those harmed but also look below the surface at the systems creating these problems - these systemic problems. Maybe we need to think differently about what it is going to take to shift them, and what we each can do to contribute to those changes.
As Einstein is purported to have said, “You can’t solve a problem with the same logic that created it.” If we want different results, then we must put down the weapons of our current mental models and build some new ones.
Like a tree…
The logic of a fight, a competition, and a binary winner/loser mentality is part of what is keeping these unhealthy systems results in place. As my brilliant friend Bella always reminds me: trees don’t compete to outshine another, nor do they hold back their gifts out of fear that they might. Each tree contributes as fully as it is capable to the wider system, showing up with all it’s strengths, woven into the systems around it. It’s time we reclaimed our understanding of and reconnection to the natural and societal systems around us, showing up fully with our abilities to contribute.
This “Call to Systems” Substack is my attempt at contributing to the conversation about both why systems understanding is essential right now, and how we might learn about changing systems (in service of doing so). Like a tree, it’s time we showed up in our full glory, ready to make the contributions needed to each do our part to help our systems contribute to our collective thriving.
Why now?
A few years ago I was on a panel with Karen Joseph of Reconciliation Canada, and she noted that in her culture there are two types of time: linear time and circular time. Linear time calls in linear leadership: set a goal, and work to get there quickly. It’s the main type of thinking and teaching I see in the MBA programs I engage with, and throughout our mainstream culture. Getting somewhere that is straight ahead more quickly means focusing on efficiency and speed.
Circular time is different. It’s not a straight line, but a complex network of twists and turns, with parts that feel more like a spiral than a line. Circular times requires circular leadership: a focus on relationships, big picture vision, emergence, intuition, and the humbleness to know no matter how fast you run and how “efficient” you are, you aren’t going to get where you want to go without slowing down from time to time to get a lay of the land, listening, figuring out where you are in the system, and then continuing on with this new information. In circular time, you can’t rely on the linear leadership tools of speed and efficiently, and you certainly can’t get where you want to go alone. It calls in humbleness, systems thinking, and patience.
Linear time is predictable. You see where you are heading on the horizon so you can set your compass, or your strategy, and keep chugging along, full-speed ahead. In complexity, if you put your head down for too long, you will be off the winding path. That might feel scary for some, but circular time also brings great promise of the possibility of change.
In linear time, changes can only happen at the speed in which you move forward. In circular time, we can make huge changes in our world by simply connecting new parts of the system and shifting to a new approach. Knowing where to connect requires engaging with complexity.
Even before we got to these complex times, many cultures, philosophies, and world views have pointed to this time in the calendar as a time of great change for humanity. We are no longer in linear times, and our linear leadership models are no longer going to get us where we need to go.
We are in circular times. We need to learn, and to teach, new (old) ways of leading. It’s time.
Is this new?
Certainly not. All of us have ancestors who lived on this planet in a circular way: who recognized and valued relationships with each other and the planet in communities of interdependence. Many Indigenous communities are still built on the principles of interdependence - with key tenants, like “All my relations,” holding interconnections and more circular leadership as core principles. “All” my relations, weaving all of life together, not just human needs. Or, the concept of making decisions now that impact the next seven generations: taking a long-term view of our actions now shift us out of linear short-term strategy and into an interconnectedness, not just with those around us now, but with generations of future and past ancestors.
Systems thinking and complexity understanding are certainly not new, and in fact might be innate in each of us, and simply taught out of us. For over 30 years, the Waters Center for Systems Thinking has been teaching systems thinking in elementary schools, and now teaches everyone from corporate professionals through elementary educators. Through their work they have seen that even the youngest of kids innately understand many system concepts (for example, if you take a photo of a horse and cut it down the middle into two, they know it’s not two horses, as they innately understand the emergent properties of a horse require the full system to be interconnected.) If systems thinking is the natural way of thinking of many children, and the cultural norm across global indigenous communities, this way of thinking might in fact be being taught out of us in modern schooling.
What if our education is teaching us that answers are right or wrong, rather than complex? What if our education is teaching us that efficiency and speed are our goals as leaders, with timed tests, hackathons, and design sprints? What if our education is asking us to cut things apart, even dissecting the parts of our education systems itself with sociology taught by one department and environmental studies by another, when we need to look at emergent properties of the whole to really understand a system? What if our education system has it wrong?
If our education systems are teaching systems thinking out of us and failing to help us understand complexity in these complex times, it’s time we rethink our education systems.
Why me?
I’m new to this modern world of Substack and Instagram and it can feel uncomfortable to step out into the world in new ways. That said, I’m not new to writing: when I lived in Japan I used to write long-form emails to a list, and when I lived in Cambodia I used to keep a Lessons I Learned blog. I have also co-authored books and more academic pieces of writing. But I don’t think more academics is what we need in this time of transitioning our thinking back to complexity mindsets. Instead, we need more relationality.
This Substack is a middle ground between by email list to friends from Japan, sharing my awe, wonder, and confusion as I explored new ways of being in the world, and my “Lessons I learned” blog focused on the lessons I was learned as I tried to step into leadership for impact. I hope to share the lessons I am learning in my work with systems (and us humans in them), as well as the personal piece of my travels through life. I will mostly be focused on how those human experiences relate to the systems understanding I believe is needed in these times.
A bit about me for those who don’t know me: I teach about systems understanding in linear worlds in universities, business accelerator programs, and corporations. I also coach: I work with really lovely humans who care about using their life force to make a difference in the world. Most of my teaching and coaching touches on “being a contribution” - how you might contribute to shifting the complex systems around you in order to see healthier results.
None of us can “solve” the complex problems around us. In fact, most of them aren’t problems at all, they are symptoms, and you can’t “solve” a symptom. But we can contribute.
My work is to help people understand the systems around them and find ways to contribute to shifting those systems. That’s why I’m here.
Why you?
Why not? If not us, then who?
If you are reading this first post, then we might already be connected in some way: maybe you are part of the social impact educator network I started, maybe we became friends in a university orientation line, or maybe you have engaged in my work and writing in some other way. Welcome, or welcome back.
This Substack might be for you if you want to hone your systems understanding skills, you want prompts from which to self-reflect on these complex times, or you just want to engage with a community of people thinking deeply about how to align their lives and their contributions with the needs of these times. However you got here, I’m delighted to have you.
What’s next?
I’m not quite sure what is next for this Substack - we’ll see! But I’m always open for advice. Likely there will be some introduction to systems understanding tools with prompts for how you might think about those in relation to your life. Maybe there will be a recorded meditation or visualization walking you through some tools as a means of self-reflection. Maybe there will be some funny bits, hopefully there will be some useful bits, but most certainly there will be lots of questions. We’ll see…
Oh, you mean’t what’s next for this complex world? I’m not quite sure about that either… but I do believe this complexity isn’t going to go away. We can stick our head in the sand and hope it shifts, but if I were a betting woman, I would say it won’t. We can try to use our linear leadership tools to hack away at complex challenges, and like trying to deal with mold spores by blowing them to the side, we’ll likely just create more mold.
It’s time for new tools and new ways of seeing the world. I’m happy to be here with you as we explore some of those, hand in hand.
This metamorphosis we are moving into as a species might not always feel good, but I am hopeful it will feel less painful if we step into it with the perspectives and tools we need, together. Like it or or not, we’ve entered circular time, so it’s time to answer the call to systems.