Integrated CSL Frame

The INTEGRATED CSL FRAME provides a comprehensive way to think about and to build transformational strategies. It outlines four main domains of action that need to be held in balance and tension as you unfold your CSL activities. All four are critical to a complete CSL approach. And all of the other CSL tools and practices are woven through and support them all. They can be used in a more conceptual way to keep you on track or in a more linear way as you create weekly and monthly to-do lists and action plans.

The four components are:

Building Capacity: how to develop personal, interpersonal and systems thinking capacities as a foundation for the work, building a practice of reflection, a common culture and language, and a way of approaching the work.

Nurturing Networks:• how to create and expand the near and extended connections and relationships that you need to create transformational change, creating a common vision and plan for change through generative conversations and connected work.

Emergent Learning:• how to work through a consistent practice of curiosity and on-going learning that includes personal and collective reflection, informal feedback, story telling and formal research.

Taking Action: how to hold a focus on the practicality of “doing what is in front of you”, being willing to try things out that make progress toward your vision and address deeper structures and processes, knowing that, through taking action, opportunity will open up and adaptation can happen.

SYSTEMS MANDALA

The Integrated CSL Frame has been developed from the Mandala for Systems Change is a framework developed by the Centre for Systems Awareness.  The mandala provides a way of understanding the components that contribute to systemic change holistically.

There are four components all equally important to creating systemic change. The objective is to first create a vision of the change we imagine and then to articulate the mechanisms necessary for change in each component.

We often find ourselves focusing on one element of the mandala, but it’s important to hold and not lose sight of the other elements while we’re doing this; they’re all equally important.

Capacity Building - What are we trying to grow? What capacities do I need to grow?  What shared capacities do we need? 

Practice - What are we trying to accomplish?  What practices/processes do we want to develop?

Community Building - Who is the ‘we’?  Who is not included and should be?  Who are the key partners?

Research - This is not a traditional definition of research, but rather asking ourselves, “What are we trying to learn?” and “How can we tell we are successful?” We need to embed some sort of reflective process to grow and improve.

Stock & Flow Diagrams

These diagrams are core to systems thinking practice. A system stock is a store, or a quantity of a material: something that you want to focus on changing. It may be a quality within a population that we want to address. Stocks change over time through the actions of flows. These flows can be positive - contributing to a positive increase in the stock - or negative - draining or depleting the stock.

Websites

Systems Thinker; https://thesystemsthinker.com/

Academy for Systems Change; http://donellameadows.org/systems-thinking-resources/

Books

Thinking in Systems: A Primer Paperback, December 3, 2008 by Donella H. Meadows (Author), Diana Wright (Editor)

The Fifth Discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization: Second edition by Peter M Senge (6-Apr-2006)

Articles

Step by Step Stocks and Flows: Improving the Rigor of your thinking; Daniel Aronson, Daniel Angelaki

Systems Mapping

An essential component of systemic change is a shared understanding of what the system is – its components, its relationships and interconnectedness, its boundaries and its intended outcomes.

Ultimately, everything has an interdependency and as such, the universe in its entirety is a system.  As a first step to understanding the system that is the focus of our change efforts, it is important to determine a boundary and decide what is in and what is out of the system.  In setting a boundary, there is a recognition that the boundary will be permeable as it makes sense to engage more broadly.  However, the initial boundary allows a concentration of collective effort and awareness.

It is helpful in determining the system boundary to ask a couple of questions:

•      What or who are we trying to impact with our efforts?

•      Where do we have access to levers for change?

 Drawing the System

Once the system boundary is identified, the groups go on to depict all the components of the system – the individuals and organizations, and the interrelationships between those components.  They also include some individuals and organizations that are just outside of their identified system boundary. This task is done simply – the group convenes around a piece of flip chart paper with felt pens and stickies and draws the system.  Intensity of connections are depicted by the thickness of the line.  When connections are tentative, they are represented by a dotted line.

 This is a straightforward task, and during this exercise there is no attention paid to causal relationship or feedback loops within the system.  However, the biggest learning often is that even when only considering these basic dimensions of the system, the system is extremely complex. Having this initial map allows participants to build the shared understanding of their system and an easy mechanism to relate this to other people.  Recognizing the complexity of the relationships and interdependence provide a valuable lens for the consideration of any next steps.

4-D Mapping

4D mapping is one output from a process called Social Presencing Theater. The technique was developed under the leadership of Arawana Hayashi and has been used extensively by Otto Scharmer in his social change and innovation efforts around the world. It can brig “the system to life” and embodies the current reality of the system and presents an opportunity to emerge a new reality.

To begin the exercise, the group identifies a number of key actors or organizations within their system of focus. Typically, this includes children and families, schools and teachers, child protection services, the municipality, and a range of other service providers and funders. Each member of the group assumes the role of one of the actors. Each places themselves in relationship to the children and families who are at the center of the tableau, as well as to the other actors in the system. Each person also takes a posture that epitomizes the character and emotions of the role they are playing. This could be big or small, powerful or fearful, open or closed etc. A few minutes are given to allow people to adjust their positioning in relation to others and then all are asked to be still. Staying in their positions, time is taken for reflection on the experience and what insights have emerged for the participants. Next, all participants are asked to reposition themselves to what they envision could be a future reality for the system. This is not necessarily what people see as ideal, but rather what their insight on the current realities has led them to want to change or move within the system. Again a few minutes are given for all to adjust and then all are asked to be still. The exercise ends with a full debrief on the experience of each participant.

Books

Systems Thinking For Social Change: A Practical Guide to Solving Complex Problems, Avoiding Unintended Consequences, and Achieving Lasting Results by David Peter Stroh | Oct 16, 2015

Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows and Diana Wright | Dec 3, 2008

Websites

FSG - Reimagining Social Change https://www.fsg.org/

Disruptive Design https://medium.com/disruptive-design/tools-for-systems-thinkers-systems-mapping-2db5cf30ab3a

Articles

4 D Mapping https://www.presencing.org/files/tools/PI_Tool_SPT_4DMapping.pdf

Videos

4D Mapping https://www.presencing.org/resource/tools/4D-mapping-desc

The Iceberg

The iceberg provides a framework for understanding an entire system and reminding us to not focus solely on a particular problem or event, but to dig deeper. In nature, only ten percent of an iceberg can be seen above the water, yet what shapes the iceberg, the water temperature and currents, takes place below the surface, out of sight. This mirrors what often happens in social change efforts where we spend time focusing on what we see (child poverty for example) and not delving deeper to determine the systemic drivers.

About the Iceberg

The Systems Iceberg is a commonly used tool in systems thinking. Its creation is most often credited to American anthropologist, Edward T. Hall, but there are now many variations in regular use. The version that we use in our training wis derived from the work of Mette Boell and Peter Senge.

The iceberg has three levels: symptoms or events; patterns and trends; and structures and processes (which includes both mental models and artefacts). 

Level 1: Symptoms or Events

This is the level at which we have the daily experience of issues and challenges.  In our example, we would be experiencing children’s challenging behaviour in a classroom.  This might involve aggression or withdrawal or running away. At this level of the iceberg, all we can do is react to the behaviour we see.  Typically, we respond to this behaviour by applying consequences or seeking extra support for the child. We may be able to temporarily manage the behaviour with some of these solutions, but we are not able to plan for or prevent other incidences of challenging behaviour.  The problem endures despite our efforts.  This is the level that we are often stuck at when we address complex social or cultural problems, by only addressing symptoms.

Level 2: Patterns or Trends

This is the level just below the surface where we can observe patterns and/or trends in the problems we are facing. In our example, if we considered the incidence of challenging behaviour in classrooms over the last decade, we would see that this behaviour has been steadily increasing.  Identifying a pattern or trend allows us to anticipate and to form a plan that is proactive.  If we can forecast that there will be children with challenging behaviour arriving in the classroom, we can put additional supports in place and potentially reduce or mitigate the incidence of the challenging behaviour.

Level 3: Structures and Processes

It is at this deepest level of the iceberg that our actions have the potential to recreate or transform the system leading to long term change in outcomes.  Structures and processes represent an interaction of both artefacts and mental models.  When we consider the fundamental causes of the patterns we observe (in our example of increasing challenging behaviour), you will likely think about an artefact or mental model.  Artefacts include: policies, organizational mechanisms; distribution of resources, cultural norms, rules etc.  An artefact that might be contributing to the incidence of challenging behaviour could be the way the classroom is organized for example.  Hypothetically the set up of the classroom constrains the child, creating stress that leads to difficult behaviour.  That would be an artefact that was contributing to an unintended outcome. Mental models include: values, experiences, judgements, beliefs and biases – those deeply held personal ideas about how the world does and should work.  A mental model that might contribute to the incidence of challenging behaviour might be our beliefs about what is acceptable behaviour in a classroom.  Perhaps we believe that children should speak quietly and not shout. We categorize shouting as “challenging” and set off a whole series of reactions based on that categorization.

Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I5YvLm5KXI

Articles

Connecting Systems Thinking and Action by Ed Cunliff

Websites

Waters Centre for Systems Thinking https://waterscenterst.org/systems-thinking-tools-and-strategies/tools-strategies/

Books

The Tip of the Iceberg: Managing the Hidden Forces That Can Make or Break Your Organization 1st Edition by Bobby Gombert and David Hutchens