Taking a Systematic View

The Biosphere is a perfect example of taking a systematic view of a challenge and its numerous opportunities. The current Management Plan already makes a compelling case for taking a holistic perspective and engaging multiple stakeholders with the intention of combining their many insights, talents and experiences for the greater good of a diverse and precious area and its community. In order to tell this story to multiple stakeholders and engage them in a meaningful way we need to help them see how this programme relates to them – to plot their own individual roadmap through this system. By doing this we can highlight the topics that they most care about while also helping them to appreciate the impact that their choices have on others – local businesses, the community, the environment and the wildlife that we share the Waterberg with.

Understanding the Calculations we can make

Any complex challenge requires us to at least appreciate the multiple moving parts that weave through any journey we attempt in order to contribute to a successful outcome.

There are many routes through challenges such as these and no single answer. Sometimes the door to one opportunity or initiative can only be opened and the journey started when other journeys have created new possibilities.

We refer to these moving parts as the dynamics of the "system' and they represent the things that can help us if we understand them well or trip us up if we choose to ignore them. The more we can think of our challenge in the context of a living system - even though we may only be addressing one or more aspects - the more we are contributing to a sustainable outcome.

These dynamics show up in many ways and at different times. Our interaction with them and the effect we achieve is equally variable. To help map these dynamics to the realities of our world we identify key Moments of Truth - opportunities to intervene in some way for the benefit of the system as a whole.

By connecting everything up in this way we can: 

• Make informed decisions about where we should allocate our time and energies
• Understand the impacts of our choices
• Plot our own particular route map through this complexity
• Stay connected to other initiatives and route maps and therefore realize even bigger opportunities at the appropriate time

If we can align our solutions and build our plans and journeys against this frame we can approach our challenge through a series of intelligent steps. We can connect and support multiple initiatives that all contribute to a bigger prize. And through this, we can better leverage the skills and capabilities that when combined deliver greater value to the system.


Looking through Alternative lenses

This is complex enough without adding to the frame we have established. But there is one other critical component - our stakeholders - those people who have the most to gain, or lose, within this system. Each will have their own perspective and their own priorities and none will care about the entirety of the system - unless we are very lucky. If we want to solve the right problem - the bigger outcome - we have to get inside the world of our stakeholder and be prepared to at least understand their context, even if we don't necessarily embrace it.

So now we have a frame and a view of the system that we are a part of. All that is left is to decide what part we propose to play in it and then ‘calculate’ the journeys that we will initiate.

In many (if not most) cases, actions that we take to support our own objectives have knock on implications for others – they result in unintended consequences and can be good or bad. Either way, it is better to understand them and be able to consider whether a different choice could achieve the same outcome for our ambitions and additionally make a positive contribution to the system overall – a win-win situation.

By establishing a single frame of reference we can tell many stories and weave many journeys. Connecting each will be a unique pattern of stakeholders / dynamics / topics / Moments of truth. Each one is critical and at some point will connect to others – creating an intricate network of related journeys that follow their own specific direction and yet find their way to a shared outcome – often creating smaller, incremental outcomes and effects along the way that release yet more patterns.