Developing a Systems Thinking Lens for Collective Leadership

We can let change just happen or we can be purposeful about creating the changes we seek. In order to understand what is required, it is necessary to understand the challenges that complex problems pose and how they manifest in the situation you are looking at systems thinking for leading in times of uncertainty — on issues big or small

Cover: Developing a Systems Thinking Lens for Collective Leadership, written by Joan O’Donnell for Collective Leadership for Scotland, Scottish Government

There is a growing realisation that traditional policy-making processes struggle to be effective in a world where issues cannot be contained by national boundaries or different administrations, and where linear cause-and-effect relationships no longer apply. Blueprint planning and log frames might get us from A to B on a long journey: indeed, it served public services well when operating environments were complicated but considered stable. It is less useful for the complexity and uncertainty we are now operating within, however, where the speed of change is faster than any generation has experienced before.

Responding to complexity involves understanding that different kinds of problems need different kinds of responses. In other words, the tool must fit the job in hand. Complex situations have no natural boundaries such as child poverty or climate change and are characterised by interdependencies, multiple stakeholders, and unknown boundaries -and while cause and effect are still linked, the consequences of any one intervention cannot be determined in advance. They are subject to emergence.

This guide, developed for the Collective Leadership for Scotland unit within the Scottish Government acts as an easy-to-read guide to support you to begin a systemic inquiry into a situation that is of concern for you. Note that you might have a situation that is concerning you that concerns an immediate situation in your own home or community or on a grand scale in public sector governance. It doesn’t matter what the size of the situation is, this guide offers some support for beginning the process of working through the situation in a systemic way, without having to go deep into the myriad of methodologies out there that support systemic change.

It is grounded in an understanding that you need to consider the interrelationships between different problems, and acknowledge and work with differences in opinion of what the problem is and what you should do about it. It also encourages you to think critically about what you are including and excluding in the boundary you draw around the problem.

And of course, it may prompt you to delve deeper into how to be more systemic in your work or home or policy design….

O’Donnell, Joan (2023): Developing a Systems Thinking Lens for Collective Leadership. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22241143.v1