Ep 45 - How to talk about systems change, with Jordan Green and Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw

If you confuse, you lose

What if we told you that the way you describe your work is putting people off the very changes you are working towards?

Phrases like:

Radical transformation

Community innovation

Codesign

Pulling levers

Breaking down silos

Tackling wicked problems

Solving complex issues.

These phrases sound impressive but they are problematic for 5 reasons.

1. They're vague. They don't tell people what you're doing or why. They're a shortcut for us as practitioners, yes. But for everybody else who doesn't live in the world of systems change, they don't mean much.

2. They're passive. They don't make it clear WHO needs to change. This lets powerful people stay under the radar.

3. They don't paint a compelling vision for the future Positive visions are crucial for encouraging people to act differently. Humans are wired to avoid pain. Talking about "radical transformation", for instance, just sounds risky to many people.

4. They make system change seem impossible. Calling a problem "complex" or "wicked" makes people go "Oh, well we can never effect change because it's all out of our hands". But that's not true.

5. Or they make systems change seem much simpler than it really is. When we talk about 'solving complex issues', people think they just need to find 'the correct answer'. (It'll be at the back of the textbook right?!) When in fact we need to learn to navigate the situation - taking notice as we move forward.

What can we say instead? Introducing the team from The Workshop

Our two guests today are from The Workshop, a research organization here in Aotearoa New Zealand that helps people to explain and understand complex issues.

They’ve recently published a report called ‘Mapping the Landscape’, and it’s one you will go back time and time again. It gives us an idea of how to talk about systems change in a way that is understood in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The two authors of that report, Jordan Green and Dr. Jess Berenson Shaw, dive into some really practical suggestions about how you can change your language to encourage the kind of system change that you're looking for.

In today’s episode you’ll learn:

The importance of creating a shared language for systems change

The problem with words like complexity, innovation and codesign

How to be careful with the language you choose so you don’t misappropriate another culture

How you have an ethical duty to use language that lifts people up, not pushing them down with lazy labels.

Resources mentioned in this episode

The Workshop website

A list of publications by The Workshop

Ep 40 - The Southern Initiative and The Power of Community-Led, with Gael Surgenor

The Reframe Programme by Business Lab

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