I watched a talk the other day talking about the exhausting work of changing the system. As soon as we stop putting in effort, everything slides back, leaving us disillusioned and demoralised

It had me reflecting in some ideas about change in complex systems

1) we often fail to understand that in complex systems, we exist within “stable states”.

We have reached a self-balancing, stable norm.

Change means continuously trying to push against these self-balancing forces. It’s hard work and change is fragile.

So what to do?

We need to fight balancing loops with positive feedback loops for the changes we want to see.

Showing value and growing over time.

An organic model of change which gets more stable over time

From this awesome video by @ncasenmare
https://longnow.org/seminars/02017/aug/07/seeing-whole-systems/

2) Behaviours spread differently to information.

Information flows through “connectors”, jumping between social group and spreading rapidly.

But behaviour change involves social risk, it needs nurturing and communities that provide social reinforcement.

https://g.co/kgs/eAxQVb 

3) We need to understand both the social structures that socialise us and the agency we have to reflect on and either reinforce or transform them.

“we are simultaneously free and constrained and we also have some awareness of it”

Archer, 1995

So, my take on all this.

Change in complex sociotechnical systems is different from usual change programmes.

1) show the value of change to create reinforcing loops
2) rather than big programmes, plant seeds of change and nurture them over time
3) make the structures visible