Seven Lessons for Leaders in Systems Change

Yesterday, I sent out an invitation to join the "4YG WashU" dialogue, a conversation about creating transformative social change at WashU. Today, I want to kick off the dialogue by sharing an article entitled "Seven Lessons for Leaders in Systems Change." This article serves as a good introduction in applying systems thinking to social change.

I find "Lesson #2: Work at multiple levels of scale" particularly enlightening. With climate and other complex social, economic, or ecological problems, focusing on one level is usually not enough. As the article states, to create real change "the answer is often working at multiple levels: top down, bottom up, outside in, and inside out."

I will send out e-mails to the large group for a few more days, then switch exclusively to e-mailing the google group. If you would like to participate in the ongoing 4YG dialogue, please go to http://groups.google.com/group/4YGWashU and click "Apply for Membership." Yesterday, 14 people joined the group, and I hope more will choose to be part of the conversation.

Enjoy the day,
Adam