Everyday Systems Practices
Systems Practices
“Using systems tools, does not make one a systems thinker!”
~ Rosalind Armson
Ultimately our work in systems is about how aware we are of our own thinking and how that influences what we see in the system. When a practitioner has a strong systems practice, this will increase and broaden the potential outcomes of the work because a wider range of inputs are engaged. In systems work, we are trying to change how we think both by WHAT we look at (practice as noun) and HOW we look at it (practice as verb).
The Systems Practices activity includes a list of 10 systems practices. These have been created to support you to practice thinking systemically in an everyday setting. They are short exercises that draw your attention to WHAT you are looking at in the systems, and HOW you’re thinking about the systems.
These practices can be done on your own, or can be easily scaled to a team or larger group. They are often helpful to use when you are feeling stuck or like the next step is unclear.
*Note: these practices have been adapted from The Waters Foundation, Habits of a Systems Thinker.
Accessibility:
This activity requires participants to engage is sensemaking and pattern recognition
This activity requires participants to write or draw on their own
Output: The outputs from the systems practices vary, but can be digitized by photography, or through tools such as MURAL, IDEAFLIP, or MIRO.
This is a Tool: a very small, contained, activity, which only has 1-2 steps. You'll apply this exactly the same way each time you use it.
Investment: low cost, low resources, low skill, low time
Outcomes
- Increase your capacity to think systemically by shifting your attention and thinking key elements of a system
- Widen your visible field of the systems and thereby increase awareness of the complexity, system dynamics, but also resources, actors and relationships within the system
- Challenge and re-negotiate your bias, assumptions and mental models of the system
Facilitation Guide
Check out the Systems Practices Guide in the next tab.