Defining Systems change (1/2)

Big ideas:

• I believe that anything and everything is a system.

• Systems change is when we think about problems and solutions systemically which is simply about thinking of everything as interconnected.

• Emergent strategy tells us that our whole world is fractal which is to say that everything that occurs on the smallest of scales reverberates out and shapes our world on the largest of scales - everything is interconnected and interdependent.

• How do we hold interconnectedness at the center of our change making?

  • What would this kind of thinking look like? feel like?

• I argue that large institutions or systems (like higher ed) cannot do good change making within a systemic framework that is fundamentally aligned with oppression. These institutions ARE shaping change, but not in a way that moves us towards abundance. In order to align with black feminist change making, like emergent strategy, institutions need to make large scale systemic change.

• It is hard for me to live a life aligned with black feminism (interdependent, adaptive, decentralized, nonlinear) within systems that are not set up to support that.