SYSTEMS CHANGE EDUCATION IN AN INNOVATION CONTEXT
SYSTEMS CHANGEEDUCATION INAN INNOVATIONCONTEXTReport &ReflectionsBy Anna Birney, Joshua Cubista,Daniela Papi-Thornton, andLaura WinnThis Guide was produced in partnership with:Support for this initiative was provided by:Ron & SheilaLirio MarceloThe Walker FamilyFoundationYale School ofManagmentReport & Reflections 1
SYSTEMS CHANGEEDUCATION INAN INNOVATIONCONTEXTReport &ReflectionsBy Anna Birney, Joshua Cubista,Daniela Papi-Thornton, andLaura WinnApril 2019The report is publicly available for distribution in electronic format,with a limited number of color copies available on request.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0International License.2SYSTEMS CHANGE EDUCATION IN AN INNOVATION CONTEX
CONTENTSSYSTEMS CHANGE EDUCATION IN4 AN INNOVATION CONTEXT SUMMIT6 INTRODUCTION8 SYSTEMS CHANGE ININNOVATION EDUCATION22 INNOVATIONSIN EDUCATIONCOMPETENCIES &12 PERSPECTIVES FORSYSTEMS CHANGEEDUCATION41 CONCLUSION42 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS& CONTRIBUTORS44 RESOURCES FOR SYSTEMSCHANGE EDUCATIONReport & Reflections 3
SYSTEMSCHANGEEDUCATIONIN ANINNOVATIONCONTEXTSUMMIT4SYSTEMS CHANGE EDUCATION IN AN INNOVATION CONTEX
In September 2018, a group of 40 educators, entrepreneurs, and systemschange experts gathered at Yale School of Management, to participate in atwo-day summit focused on “Systems Change Education in the InnovationContext.” Throughout the event educators and practitioners shared theirdiverse perspectives and initiatives, competency frameworks, programmaticinitiatives, and course syllabi, in order to surface and learn from best practicesof leading institutions and organizations from around the world. The collectionof learning and examples of systems change education in action wereprovocative and diverse, and the conveners wanted to find a way to share thiscollection of knowledge and action with a wider audience.The event included a “Gallery Walk” of systems education tools, competencies,and frameworks that can be viewed here: systemschangeeducation.comThis report provides a deeper look at the perspectives and possibilities sparkedfrom the conversations at Yale School of Management, with summaries of thekey themes, and links to additional resources. This report includes a deeper diveinto a selection of initiatives underway globally that exemplify the highlightedperspectives and competencies for effective systems change education in aninnovation context with the hope that these might be built upon and spread.The authors’ learning and perspectives have also been shaped through anumber of other similar gatherings, such as the Systems Change Field BuildingConvening on Wasan Island and the Systems Change Education in CanadaConvening in Vancouver.We hope this report honors the diverse learning andperspectives of our global colleagues who are working tobring systems change education into an innovation contextand beyond.Report & Reflections 5
INTRODUCTION6SYSTEMS CHANGE EDUCATION IN AN INNOVATION CONTEX
The Western education system has long been diagnosed as not fit for purpose for a postindustrial world. Trends in education since the 1980s have been turning more and more towardsaddressing practical and real world challenges – for example the growth in business andmanagement schools and disciplines such as design education and action research. The growthof the social entrepreneurship and social innovation movements has been accompanied byrapid development of practice-oriented learning offerings in business schools and universitieson social entrepreneurship and social design.However, these disciplines still fail to widely address the systemic nature of the challenges weface, or prepare people to tackle interconnected “wicked-problems” such as climate change,biodiversity loss, and inequality1. Management and business education is failing to train peoplewith the skills organizations will need to operate in an increasingly uncertain world. The focuson social ventures and social enterprise in the multitude of start-up training programs andincubators still draws from a largely linear solutions-based model, forefronting new venturecreation and organizational growth over more complex and multi-leveled approaches to socialchange.Although sustainability and social innovation education has been on the rise and has calledfor ‘the necessary transformation of higher education towards the integrative and more wholestate implied by a systemic view of sustainability in education and society’2, change has beenslow to come about.This is partly because the adoption of systemic approaches critiques not only the curriculumbut the paradigm of education itself, questioning how we might need to learn these newcapabilities3. Across formal education disciplines, teacher-centred pedagogy is the dominantparadigm4. Students and teachers still follow the learning patterns of the apprentice-masterpower dynamic. Academic knowledge is valued over lived experience. Curricula are designedfor predetermined outcomes, with very little space for living dynamics and emergence.Over the last few decades, calls for ‘earth-literate leaders’5 have intensified with growingrecognition of the interconnectedness of sustainability challenges that span beyond the triplebottom line of social, environmental and financial systems. Increasingly, we are having to lookat the closely intertwined issues of governance, justice, and decision making when consideringwhat social innovation and sustainability imply in a dynamic and complex world.1. Capra, F. and Luisi, P. (2014) A systems view of life, a unifying vision, Cambridge University Press (see resources section below)2. Sterling, S. (2004). ‘Higher education, sustainability and the role of systemic learning’, in Corcoran, P.B. and Wals, A. E. J. (eds) Higher Education and the Challenge ofSustainability: Problematics, Promise, and Practice, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 47-70.3. A paper written about the School of System Change as a system change endeavour has inspired this introduction and explores how this initiative has looked at putting thisquestion at the heart of it’s approach.4. Souleles, N. (2017). Design for social change and design education: Social challenges versus teacher-centred pedagogies. The Design Journal, 20(sup1), 13530375. Martin, S., & Jucker, R. (2005). Educating Earth-literate Leaders. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 29(1), 19–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098260500030298Report & Reflections 7
SYSTEMSCHANGE ININNOVATIONEDUCATION8SYSTEMS CHANGE EDUCATION IN AN INNOVATION CONTEX
Systems change terminology is rippling its way through social innovationvernacular and leaving a lot of questions in its wake. What do people meanwhen they say systems change, and how does one teach that? Who is alreadymaking a shift and what can we learn from those existing efforts? And why aresocial entrepreneurship and innovation educators needed as a key levers inthe shift from a focus on organizational growth to collective systems change?This report is designed to help explore those questions and invite educatorsto bring a systems lens into their social innovation offerings.Social innovation and social entrepreneurship educators are in a uniqueposition to further the work of shifting unhealthy local and global systems.But to do that, educational offerings need to move beyond the typical socialentrepreneurship education model. In many programs, social entrepreneurshipis taught simply as social venture creation: pick a social issue, learn a bit aboutit, create a new product or service offering to impact change, and try to scalea company and potentially its impact. The problem with that model is that it isfurthering a social change narrative that is based on individual organizationalgrowth, leaving the onus of change on each individual social venture often inits own silo. Changing unhealthy systems dynamics, however, requires a rangeof interconnected shifts, not just in new venture creation but in changing thestructure of existing systems and the relationships between the actors withinthose systems. Without changes at the system level, individualized resultsof new social ventures will have minimal impact on the wider issues of ourtime. Furthermore, the myth of the lone hero entrepreneur creates a falsehierarchy among innovators that fosters a narrative that undermines the direneed for more collaborative approaches to addressing complex challenges. Assuch, innovation and entrepreneurship educators have the opportunity, if notresponsibility, to invite a wider systemic understanding of the interconnectedand complex dynamics facing society. The nature of this kind of educationalinnovation goes well beyond the expansion of new venture creation alonetoward the fostering of future systems-led change leaders.Report & Reflections 9
SYSTEMS CHANGE IN INNOVATION EDUCATIONA Business PerspectiveThis call for systems change to be integrated into innovation education comesalongside similar provocations to business education as a whole to introduce newcore competencies in the face of 21st century challenges. An explorative studyhas highlighted that the standardized curricula of business schools do not matchsufficiently with the needs expressed by business leaders for integrated systemsknowledge, ecosystem design, and collaborative innovation efforts.Businesses recognise that there is growing complexity and uncertainty in the worldthey are operating in, and would welcome people who are better equipped and moreresilient in the face of this uncertainty. Those business leaders who are more deeplycommitted to sustainability understand that collaboration is key for breakthroughinnovations towards more sustainable models such as the circular economy, and areinterested in recruiting people with the capacity to build coalitions and ecosystemsfor transformative change.From Social Enterprise to a Systems Change LensAs noted previously, the competencies and perspectives needed to launch socialventures are different from those needed to understand and contribute to shiftingunhealthy systems. The story of the social enterprise MyBnk, a UK based youth financialeducation organization, is a useful example to highlight different approaches, as theorganization’s leadership moved from a more traditional social enterprise model intoa more systems-led model.MyBnk was founded in 2007 by Lily Lapenna. After spending time workingin Bangladesh and learning about BRAC's microfinance programs, shereturned to the UK and realized that many of the young people sheencountered at home could also use financial education. With the adviceand partnership of social entrepreneurship experts, Lily founded MyBnkand the organization developed methodology, toolkits, and curricula forteaching financial literacy within schools, youth groups, supported housingorganizations, and institutes for youth offenders. To fund their work, theybegan selling their offerings in schools across the UK and around the worldas well as fundraising and building corporate and public partnerships.During the course of the first few years, the bootstrapped team kepttheir head down, working on developing their educational approach andcompeted with other financial education providers for limited funding. Aftera few years, Lily noted that collaborating with their perceived “competitors”10SYSTEMS CHANGE EDUCATION IN AN INNOVATION CONTEX
had the potential to create greater impact than any one organization couldachieve on their own. They partnered with the Personal Finance EducationGroup (now known as Young Money), and helped create a youth financialeducation cross-partisan working group consisting of government officials,financial education providers, and entrepreneurs. Within two years, thisgroup was able to contribute to changes in UK Law. Financial education isnow compulsory in state maintained secondary schools across the country.In reflection, Lily shared this with us, “If we had followed a moretypical social enterprise approach, we might have focused solely onour organizational growth, trying to sell and raise funds for more of ourservices and grow our direct bottom line and impact. The work we didwith the government partnership, and other working groups, such asthe one that helped push for financial literacy education for all youthleaving foster care at age 21, took me and my leadership team awayfrom day to day program sales and fundraising. Those policy changesdidn’t grow our organization, but they helped shift the financial literacysystem in the UK and I believe our efforts in those areas had biggerimpacts than any growth in our individual programs sales could haveachieved. If we had been working with social investors who wanted usto simply focus on financial sustainability, they might not have beenhave happy to see their CEO spending so much time at meetings withcompetitors or policy makers. This shift, from building and scaling oursocial enterprise to contributing to wider systems-level work was onethat took both a perspective, mindset, and skill shift. We might havemore people making that shift if all social entrepreneurs who wantto contribute to solving social or environmental problems were giventraining on working with government, influencing policy change, andcollaborating across networks. Those skills aren’t taught in most socialenterprise start-up programs, but they should be!”Lily received an MBE from the Queen for her work, and MyBnk continuesto grow both as a social enterprise and as an advocate for wider systemschange in relation to youth financial education.Report & Reflections 11
COMPETENCIES& PERSPECTIVESFOR SYSTEMSCHANGEEDUCATION12SYSTEMS CHANGE EDUCATION IN AN INNOVATION CONTEX
Often innovation and entrepreneurship education tend toward single issueanalysis, siloed approaches to addressing challenges, or market-basedopportunities that focus on ROI before broader social impact. In the faceof increasingly complex, fast-paced, local and global issues, increasingsocio-ecological crisis, and rapid technological advancement, the fieldof education, like many other dearly held traditions/institutions, is beingforced to rapidly evolve so as to be relevant to the needs of learners todayand those of the future.The perspectives often embedded in systems change approaches enablelearners, educators, and practitioners to explore a holistic understandingof the systems within which we live, those that we create, and how thestrategies we enact impact the health of our systems and our societyat-large. Systems change competencies include a broad spectrum ofmethods, tools, approaches, and capacities that are often developedthrough applied practice and experiential learning in the field. Both systemschange competencies and perspectives together provide pathways towardunderstanding the interconnected complex social, ecological, technical andcultural challenges and opportunities that learners and practitioners face inthe 21st century.This report highlights a growing trend in the field of education to includesystems change competencies and perspectives in program curricula. Theshift toward systems change focused education engages learners beyond theconventional confines of traditional institutions with real world challengesin their broader innovation and educational ecosystems. During the SystemsChange Education in an Innovation Context summit, contributors participatedin a rapid brainstorming session to identify key competency areas, idealcourses, and potential learning labs for systems change education. Whatemerged was a broad reflection on the kinds of skills, perspectives, and areasof learning and practice that educators and practitioners can include whenteaching and facilitating systems change education and capacity building.The following text boxes illuminate the broad spectrum of competency areasand perspectives that practitioners highlighted as foundations for systemschange education.Report & Reflections 13
COMPETENCIES & PERSPECTIVESFOR SYSTEMS CHANGE EDUCATIONFundamental Skills & Areas for LearningReflection - Listening - Communication - Mental models - Empathy - Selfawareness - Storytelling - Living systems theory - Futures - Prototyping Complex systems - Design - Wicked problems - Power - Privilege - Diversity- Inclusion - Positionality - Social movements - Multi-stakeholder - Values- Nature immersion - Systems mapping - Embodiment practice - Socioecological justicePractitioner Skills & Areas of PracticeRelationship building - Collaboration - Decision making - Systems dynamics- Conflict resolution - Stakeholder analysis & engagement - Facilitation Mediation - Negotiation - Coalition building - Data analysis & management- Humility - Conscious and unconscious bias - Ethical self-inquiry Measurement & evaluation - Ethnographic interviewing - Deep listening- Appreciative inquiry - Creative process - Group process - Communityorganizing - Philanthropy - Hosting - Trust-building - Leverage points Adaptation & scale - Learning journeys - Capacity building - Participatorymethodology - Labs - Systems theory and frameworksCore Competencies, Methods, & Perspectives inSystems Change EducationAcross the emerging field of systems change education, there are a wide arrayof perspectives and methods that together comprise the core competenciesof systems change practitioners. What follows is an exploration of overarchingthemes that align across many competency frameworks. It is not meant to beexhaustive or prescriptive but rather illuminate a set of core competenciesrepresented by practitioners at the summit and beyond within highereducation programs, certificate programs, and practitioner training.An example of a systems change education competency model can be seenthrough the regional and national curriculum development project of theSocial Innovation Institute in Toronto, Canada and its affiliated nationalnetwork Social Innovation Canada respectively. Within these two levels ofregional and national scale (including higher education institutions, civilsociety, non-profit sector, and corporate sector) the initial competencyareas being developed for curriculum are:14SYSTEMS CHANGE EDUCATION IN AN INNOVATION CONTEX
1. Systems strategy2. Working across difference and power3. Collaboration practice and process4. Social finance and social enterprise5. Systems leadership and personal practice6. The innovation process7. Scaling and implementation, and8. Strategic learning and evaluation.You can explore more about how this systems change education model isworking to build capacity as part of the SI Canada initiative here.In general, and as the prior example suggests, systems change competenciestend towards an integrative breadth and depth of learning and engagementthat can support learners and practitioners when applying what they learn toaddress real-world challenges. Many competency frameworks emphasize theirown unique elements of systems change practice and use descriptive languagethat is context specific to their given approach, place, and populations withwhom they work and learn.What follows is a brief overview of a select set of aligned competency areasthat emerged across the approaches of participants at the summit. Eachsystems competency area includes a brief description and is partnered withexamples from specific programs and/or organizational approaches to systemschange education from summit contributors. The following is put forward asboth inspiration and reflection upon how educators can incorporate systemschange education into their programmatic and curricular repertoire.PracSyste tmSystarticipatoryPMee&ic Tools & Framess OrienmeInnerWorksodth rkswo ionttaAreas ofSystemsCompetencyReport & Reflections 15
COMPETENCIES & PERSPECTIVESFOR SYSTEMS CHANGE EDUCATIONInner WorkSummit participants as well as educators and practitioners in the field ofsyste
Social innovation and social entrepreneurship educators are in a unique position to further the work of shifting unhealthy local and global systems. But to do that, educational offerings need to move beyond the typical social entrepreneurship education model. In many programs, social entrepreneurship is taught simply as social venture creation .
Types of relation between education and social change There are three ways in which the relationship between education and social change can be studied 1. Education may ignore social change and serve as a conserver of traditions 2. It may act as a co-operative force in social change; or 3. It may act as an agent of social change
Education brings social change both to the individual and the society at large. Teachers are the agents of change, education as the stimulus and the students are the recipients and preserves of change. In this paper discussed about the role of education on social change and lags in educational system. Key Words: Education and Social Change.
Developmental Change, Transitional Change, and Transformational Change 37 Resistance to Change 37 Models of Change Management 37 Change Management in Public Universities in Cambodia 41 Overview of Higher Education Changes in Cambodia 41 Reforms in Higher Education in Cambodia 42 Change in Governance Structure at the National Level 42
To synthesize the concepts covered during the workshop, the report is organized as follows: 1. Seeing Systems Change 2. Facilitating Systems Change 3. Assessing Systems Change 4. Developing Philanthropic Capacity for Assessing Systems Change 5. Calls to Action Though this report isn’t exhaustive, it includes the most salient concepts.
control both the content of the change (the file change) and the timing of the change (the system command). Accordingly, the change management system must be able to intercept the system command as well as the file change. Key: Comprehensive Change Tracking In today's dynamic systems environment, successive changes can be made in a very
Chapter 8: Leadership and Dealing with Change 225 . The Reality of Change 226 . Leader’s Role in Change Management 227 . Organizational Change 228 . Change Leadership vs. Change Management 232 . Facilitating Change 234 . The Board and Change 238
survey was designed to capture data on the specific change and the organization’s change management practices (Organizational Change Survey), while the other survey focused on individual differences and reactions to the change (Personal Change Survey). The specific change being studied was identified at the beginning of each survey
Change Sessions 40 Balance Tom Kenyon CHANGE A-1 40 Deep Theta Tom Kenyon CHANGE A-2 40 Progressive Deep Relaxation Frank Young, Ph.D. CHANGE A-3 40 Theta I Frank Young, Ph.D. CHANGE A-4 40 Alternity Frank Young, Ph.D. CHANGE A-5 41 Innervision Paul Scheele CHANGE B-1 41 Dreamtime Deborah DeBerry CHANGE B-
