How complex, adaptive systems change

Below you’ll find an organized list of systems behaviors and the ways they change. It is designed to help us look for what is hidden in the system and also bring new ways of understanding to what is already visible in the system. It includes different types of patterns in the system, helping us to discover where we might intervene and disrupt the system. These types of systems dynamics show up differently in each system, and are tapped/utilized differently depending on systems change goals.

It was originally prepared for Imaginable Futures and I’m reprinting here to share with others who have expressed interest.

This list comes from many different sources, referenced throughout with numbers at the end of each bullet and associated resources at the end.

You can use this resource to:

1. Reflect on the range/type of systems dynamics your strategy seeks to influence;
2. Build a shared language and understanding of how you are seeking to change the system; and
3. Identify alternative ways to influence systemic change as you continue to adapt and refine your strategies.

Systems Dynamics

The Current Moment

Systems are overlaid with political stories — the issue framing used by actors to gain advantage over desired changes. They are also fragile in moments of sudden pressure or change. These current moment dynamics can include:

• Events: The challenges in the system as they present themselves right now — often this is about preventing the immediate harms or tapping into a disruptive opportunity.1,2
• Framing: Systems are talked about, defined, and described publicly in many different ways, often based on competing storylines and “facts” in order to justify a variety of desired actions.1,2

Visible Dynamics

Systems dynamics are often visualized and categorized in order to make sense of the system. Systems maps, for example, might include a mix of behaviors in the system, power dynamics, information sharing, goals, rules, etc. These “visible systems dynamics” collectively drive the outcomes of the system. Some dynamics might be emerging in the system, while others are well-established and hard to change. Some might be very visible to everyone, and others visible primarily to “insiders” of the system.

• Stated/visible goals of the system: The publicly stated goals for the system that drive policies, practices, resources, etc. 2,4
• Policies: Laws, rules, regulations, standards, appropriations, etc.1,2,4,6
• Informal rules: In addition to the formal policies, systems also include unstated rules and expectations, often driving individual and group behavior as well as limiting what options are considered and decisions are possible.2,4
• Power dynamics: Which individuals and organizations hold decision-making power, authority, and influence (both formal and informal), including the visible power over changing the system.2, 4, 6,7
• Resource flows: How money, people, knowledge, and information are allocated and distributed. Who does and doesn’t have access to what and when.2,4,6
• Structures/infrastructure: Built environments, materials, and other tangible assets of the system.4
• Relationships and connections: Quality of connections and communication occurring between actors and institutions.3,6
• Institutions and actors: Individual and organizational health and capacity, including the pipeline of future leaders.3
• Empowerment: Individual agency and powe among those historically marginalized and/or harmed by the system; awareness and understanding of how to use power to influence systemic changes; and access to places of power.7
• Systems change practices: Organizational and practitioner activities that protect or disrupt the status quo.2,6

Hidden/Underlying Dynamics

A set of hidden dynamics are steadily and often invisibly influencing the visible dynamics of a system. Different actors understand and overly simplify the system using various sets of myths and metaphors (often in conflict with other sets also used by actors in the system) and based on the hidden (unstated) goals of the system. These are further influenced by the mental models and mindsets each actor brings that cut across many issues. Collectively, this combination of unquestioned dynamics limits our ability to understand each other, think broadly about the system, and explore a wide variety of solutions.2

• Mindsets/mental models/paradigms: Deeply held, often invisible, and rarely interrogated beliefs and assumptions that influence one’s actions. These culturally based ways of understanding the world limit thinking about choices and inhibit action. Their cultural basis means they may be held by both those in power and those most negatively affected by the system, which can lead to an internalization of powerlessness.1, 2,4,5,6,7
• Myths/cultural stories/narratives: The unchallenged stories that relate to people, problems, solutions, and needs in the system and can limit choices and discredit legitimacy of voices. There are typically a variety of such stories active in the system, often conflicting.1,2,5,7
• Biases: The interpersonal and structural biases woven throughout the system that lead to privilege or harm for different groups.5
• Unstated goals of the system: Hidden goals that underlie many policy, practice, and resource choices in the system.2

Patterns

Systems do not exist at a single point in time. You cannot understand how and why a system behaves without looking at how patterns have emerged over time, the patterns of behavior happening right now, and how the system is protecting itself from change.1,2

• Patterns of visible dynamics in the system: The ebb and flow of how any of the visible dynamics change over time, including how they change in relationship to each other.2
• Patterns of hidden dynamics in the system: The ebb and flow of how norms, myths, biases, etc. have emerged and persisted, including when/what has disrupted them and how they influence visible dynamics.2,4
• Patterns of inputs into the system: The interconnections with other systems and how they influence the system, including larger patterns such as demographic or resource shifts.2,6
• Delays: The lengths of delays in impact (positive or negative), relative to the rate of specific system changes or systems behaviors.4
• Negative feedback loops: The strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the impacts they are trying to correct against.4
• Positive feedback loops: The strength of the gain that happens from positive feedback loops.4
• Knowledge base: Shifts over time about related to evidence, experiential knowledge, and credibility of knowledge about the nature of the problem and what works.3

Exploring the Sources

These ideas have come from many different frameworks and sources (indicated above with numbers), including:

1. Causal Layered Analysis (Sohail Inayatullah, 2017)
2. Exploring Systems Change: An Action-Oriented Framework (PolicySolve, 2023)
3. Field Building for Population Level Change (Bridgespan, 2020)
4. Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System (Donnella Meadows, 1999)
5. Our Frameworks (Systems Sanctuary, 2017)
6. Waters of Systems Change (FSG, 2018)
7. Power Cube: Forms of Power (PowerCube, 2011)