Systems Innovation

Over the past year or so, the general quality of the Twitter/X platform has significantly degraded. For this we have made the decision to move to Bluesky, We welcome you to join us there: bsky.app/profile/sinetw…

Just published by the Si Design Hub team, their first-ever paper on the state of systemic design: systemsinnovation.network/posts/design-h… They also have an event coming up this week to share the contents of the paper and gain your input on how it could be developed: systemsinnovation.network/events/state-o…

This week's updates on activities, new content, and events in the Si Network: view.flodesk.com/emails/69a2aed…

We are pleased to announce that this Wednesday, we will kick off our next learning series with a 90 min presentation and workshop introduction to systems innovation: systemsinnovation.network/events/introdu… Learn about the full series here: systemsinnovation.network/spaces/2227682…

Join an insightful discussion with Tom Rippin, founder and CEO of @OnPurposeUK, on navigating complexity through systems thinking and developing leadership abilities. See Online Event: systemsinnovation.network/events/systems… In-Person Event: systemsinnovation.network/events/systems…

This week's updates on activities, new content, and events in the Si Network: view.flodesk.com/emails/6983233…

This week's updates on activities, new content, and events in the Si Network: view.flodesk.com/emails/6968c62…

Today's info session at Si will walk you through how the systems innovation toolkit works and how it can support you in integrating systems innovation into your work and challenge area. See Event: systemsinnovation.network/events/explori…

@HelenBevan Thanks for sharing Helen

Let’s talk about “emergence” in organisational change initiatives. Emergence is when new ways of working & new forms of order grow out of the interactions of people, practices & structures, rather than through implementation of a fixed, top-down change plan. Top‑down, programme‑driven approaches assumes change is predictable & that leaders can design the route in advance. Research on emergent change shows our change environments are complex, fluid & cannot be fully understood or controlled in advance. It’s not surprising that, in many situations, top down approaches on their own are failing to deliver the outcomes we need. Emergent approaches (which blend strategic intent & accountability with high local autonomy on how to move things toward) are clearly the way to go. Yet organisational leaders are reluctant to adopt them. Why? · The wider accountability & governance systems we operate in expects linear plans, business cases & RAG reports, so leaders worry that explicitly adopting emergent approaches will be seen as vague, indecisive, or not having “management grip” of the change, even in obviously complex environments. · Under high levels of scrutiny & pressure, leaders may worry that inviting more emergent, adaptive ways of working will look like ‘losing control’ & create chaos, especially in cultures where it still feels unsafe for leaders to name fear, uncertainty, or not having all the answers. · Most leadership development does not include practices for emergence such as inquiry‑based facilitation, safe‑to‑fail experimentation, joint sense‑making & adaptive framing, so “emergence” is often heard as “no plan”. We can build emergence into our daily leadership practice by adding new ways of working around experimentation, learning & distributed leadership, without losing focus on accountability & delivery: 1) Take a “tight-loose-tight” approach: tight on strategic intent, loose on multiple local routes & experiments towards it & tight on accountability for results 2) Introduce safe‑to‑fail experiments: many small, parallel interventions around key priorities that enable learning & can fail without harm 3) Make experimentation routine: require major programmes to allocate a proportion of budget & capacity to designed experiments before any big‑bang roll‑out 4) Measure improvement in adaptability & collaboration - not just results: add measures for experimentation, collaboration & responsiveness (e.g., number of safe‑to‑fail tests, time from idea to first trial, cross‑team initiatives started) alongside traditional KPIs 5) Build the likelihood of emergence into the business case process: add “learning system design” to the template - how data, stories & signals will be gathered, discussed & used to pivot or stop; align incentives, risk & culture so people are rewarded for stopping or redirecting initiatives when evidence changes, not just for delivering the original plan 6) Institutionalise collective sense‑making: forums across the system where data, stories & experiment results are interpreted together, & next moves are agreed adaptively. 7) Replace blame or failure language with forward‑looking learning language (“what did we discover?”), especially in reviews & governance meetings 8) Develop leadership capabilities for emergence: build skills in inquiry, facilitation, “holding space”, & working with uncertainty, not just project & programme management & “technical” improvement methods. A favourite “classic” article on leading for emergence by Gervase Bushe & Robert J Marshak: gervasebushe.ca/otherdocs/Dial…. Graphic by Joss Colchester of @Sys_innovation: linkedin.com/posts/josscolc…

Over the past decade, our partner organization Endeva has been exploring and experimenting with different methods to facilitate system change Now they have developed a toolbox that supports different stages of the process Join this event to learn more: bit.ly/4ozmwPe

If you want to learn how to design and facilitate workshops that bring participants together to collaborate and enable change, our next learning lab might be for you. Full info: systemsinnovation.network/spaces/2179269…

This week, the next in-person Si London Hub meetup, held in collaboration with the London Interdisciplinary School, will take place. You are welcome to join... Full info and RSVP: systemsinnovation.network/events/navigat…

In this how-to post, we will share with you the key aspects that you should be considering, as well as what this looks like for other organizations and the general practice out there in the field of systems innovation. lnkd.in/ejjM4tfx

Very excited to announce that the Si Network and Oxfam Novib will be co-hosting this two-day in-person conference in Amsterdam. This will be a global gathering to reflect, connect, and explore pathways for systems innovation. Full info: luma.com/usuyqxzb

Coming up tomorrow, Si Design Hub will be hosting this panel discussion exploring what systems thinking means in the context of product and user experience design.  See event info: systemsinnovation.network/events/systems…

See the latest events and content at Si with this week's newsletter: view.flodesk.com/emails/68e145e…

If you would like to learn how to apply systems thinking better in your area of research, we welcome you to join us for this one-hour interactive session: systemsinnovation.network/events/system-…

These five Si Guides can help you get started with all things systems thinking and complexity theory. You can find them all here: systemsinnovation.network/spaces/14660875

Weekly updates from the Si Network view.flodesk.com/emails/68ce8e1…

Do you want to dive deeper into learning the basics of systems thinking? Our next learning lab is starting soon to help with just this... Full info here: systemsinnovation.network/spaces/2080813…

Have you discovered the Si Social Hub space yet? Si Social Hub is a community for those interested in applying systems innovation ideas and methods towards addressing social challenges and better understanding social systems. You can learn more here: systemsinnovation.network/spaces/4547591