Our Research Methodology
Many approaches to systems leadership have a 'fruit salad' feel.
That is, practitioners borrow from a range of research methodologies and systemic thinking frameworks, often engaging mapping, organisational learning processes, trauma-informed practice, restorative justice frameworks and storytelling strategies. The drawing together of multiple disciplines to formulate multilateral approaches to complex problems is an exciting development of our times.
However, it is fruit salad.
Sorry if you like fruit salad.
Many of us are working to solve large-scale problems under pressure, before more lives are harmed, the temperature rises further, or our funding runs out. This anxiety fuels a ‘throw everything at it’ approach.
This is because systemic thinking alone isn’t enough.
We know. We can’t believe we said it.
Systemic thought is breaking new ground by challenging the all too linear, static and reductionist approaches of traditional change management. Yet thinking and acting systemically remains only half the battle for those working on the most challenging projects, in the most under-resourced environments.
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To explain why, we have to get personal.
The birth of Systemic Renewal started with the story of a girl who cried a river and drowned the whole world (song by Nine Days, 2000). That girl was Heather, who like millions of people in the world, grew up a survivor. Like a velcro hook to loop, she latched onto stories of people who had flourished against the odds. Imperfect, magical people like:
Nelson Mandela;
Florence Nightingale;
Mother Teresa;
Martin Luther King Jr;
Mahatma Gandhi;
Aung San Suu Kyi.
She wanted to know how. She went on to study law and world religions at university; a rare combination. She knew that policy change and inner change were both pieces of the puzzle, and felt an unrelenting compulsion to give energy to both disciplines. The twenty years that followed were spent with hands to the dirt and mill of working with individuals and communities on their knees, in a range of roles from lawyer to teacher to priest.
Eventually, Heather’s doctoral studies combined her seemingly ‘fruit salad’ litany of careers into a project to achieve for whole systems what she had lived personally. That is, the ability to reclaim their true identity.
It might sound strange, but whilst our instinct is to scramble at working out multiple ways to 'move with' and adapt to changes to our environment, culture and market, the inability to embrace 'newness' is a secondary problem. It is a symptom of something else.
When a system feels stuck it is because something has overshadowed or compromised the inherent truth and dignity of its identity at the mindset level.
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The critical capacity of great social reformers is their ability to change the collective mindset and implement this change systemically. Heather discovered that they do this through disciplines that radically identify with the individual (micro), organisational (meso) and societal (macro) levels of experience concurrently. That is, practitioners come from a 'me too' perspective, that they also need to change their minds.
Systemic Renewal is an action research method, grounded in critical pedagogy for systems change. It is uniquely marked by its groundedness (in the discipline of identifying with the human experience), selectivity (who is in the action research team), positionality (a problem-solving community who sit within the system), and orientation (towards performative renewal across micro, meso and macro levels).
Unlike fruit salad, you can’t learn it from a YouTube clip, so we recommend stepping into the lived experience.
But below is our process in a diagram (for those who like pictures). It moves through two movements of discovery of mindsets and assisting the system to commit to renewed mindsets.
Orientation
Consider the layers of interventions that characterised the Civil Rights Movement: the symbolic action of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott; Martin Luther King Junior’s “I have a dream speech” at the March on Washington; the local activities of the Montogmery Improvement Association, leading rallies and church gatherings; and the policy changes effected by Brown v Board of Education 1954 and the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964. We assist leaders to strategise at all of these levels of transition.
Groundedness
Mindsets are largely unconscious or semiconscious, making informal data gathering critical to accuracy. Consider the ‘sink or swim’ mentality that often exists towards graduates, though these never appear in formal PowerPoints or training programs. Similarly, the concept of ESG investments or ESG compliant practices assumes a meaningful clustering of E, S and G priorities, which can shield transparency about all three. We work to gather meaningful data that tells us what people really collectively believe is true and valuable.
Selectivity
Counter-intuitive though it may be, history has proven that groundbreaking movements usually look like nothing at first. Slow and small, the right people work in the right way. The Suffragette Movement, for example, started as the Kensington Society; a home gathering in London where women could meet in safety, to freely, confidentially discuss the issues that were most important to them. These parallel communities are the first and most important ingredient to Renewal.
Positionality
Policy entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Global Citizen, Michael Sheldrick, knows from experience the power of storytelling and a well-rehearsed ten minute pitch. It was this kind of preparation that secured millions of dollars towards polio eradication. We provide leaders with a framework for preparing and rehearsing presentations and modelling of new mindsets. in ways that we know help communities to heal, let go, and embrace their true worth and purpose.
Systemic Renewal is a research methodology that seeks to renew the identity of a system,
to achieve social change.
We are proud to be a social enterprise dedicated to supporting leaders in the toughest places. We commit 100% of our profits to programs in the majority world.
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First
Peoples and the Traditional Owners of the unceded lands and waterways on which we work,
live and walk. We acknowledge and pay respect to knowledge holders, living culture and elders
past, present and emerging and commit to ongoing recognition and reconciliation.
© 2024. Systemic Renewal International Pty Ltd
Photos © Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation and James Rowe
Videos © Dan A'Vard
