Change Power

Global Systems Initiatives is launching a project to synthesize that wisdom from a wide variety of sources to ask the question: How can the best of what we know about the process of change help us address the profound global challenges we now face? It will accomplish this task by reaching out to social innovators, thought leaders, organizational and human behavior specialists, social movement experts, change agents, indigenous wisdom-keepers, funders, scientists, relief and development workers, business leaders, systems thinkers, activists, advocates, and others – all of whom carry some thread of the larger tapestry.

In November and December we will convene dialogues, interviews, and teleconferences, asking some version of the following questions:

What do we know about culture change in complex systems? (memes, mindsets, behavioral norms)

• What do we know about moving from separative to inclusive; from segregated to integrated; from fragmented (smoke-stacked) to holistic (cross-functional) in complex systems?
  
• What do we know about building resilience in complex systems?
  
• What do we know about fostering collaboration and co-creativity in complex systems?

In January we will host a one-day Change Summit, inviting up to 100 people to comment on and refine the principles we have discovered through this process, translate them into strategies and tools, and test their application to real-life change issues. To accomplish this, policymakers and advocates on three global issues will join change agents from various sectors in exploring how the tools might make a difference to particular policies. The three issues are: Resource Scarcity (food, water, and energy, in the context of climate change), disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and peace and security in Afghanistan/Pakistan/India.

The project will culminate in a white paper that highlights transformative innovations, describes the change strategies we have synthesized from the research, shows the application of those principles to the identified issues, and makes recommendations for further application to other challenges. This paper will ultimately become a chapter in a book called The Power of WE: New Tools of Global Engagement for an Interconnected World.

The outcomes of this project will be disseminated through various means: email distribution, public speaking, presentations, op-eds, workshops, conferences, blogging, and more.

If you would like to participate in this project, please emai diamond@globalsystemsinitiatives.net.