Dear colleagues, The discussion that Wendy and Val have instigated around around transformative change is thought provoking - thanks guys. I have really enjoyed the richness of David's stories around change management cases in Nepal and the Indian sub-continent, and appreciated the insights, thoughts and questions that have been shared by James, Lizzie, Chrys, Ashwani, Louise and Christina.
I often think the problem we are talking about is less a lack of knowledge around tools and practices that support (transformative) change, than it is around having a language that enables funders, policy makers and researchers/practitioners to be clear about the type of system, and level of system change we/they are trying to support. As Canadian health researchers Sholom Glouberman and Brenda Zimmerman have often pointed out, it makes a difference if a problem is viewed as "complicated" or "complex" when developing and applying remedies. In their writing they argue that health care systems are complex, and that repairing or improving them is a complex problem. However, they also go on to point out that most attempts to intervene in Medicare (and in many other health care systems) treat health systems as if they were merely complicated. Complicated problems are like sending a rocket to the moon - formulae are important, the system is predictable and repeatable, reductionist approaches are useful, etc. Complex problems are like bringing up a child - every child is unique, formulae aren't that good for management, children are self-aware and adaptive, and you can't predict how they'll grow up. Moreover 50 percent (at least) of the parent's well-planned interventions are doomed to failure ..... I took the kid to soccer, then cycling, then gumnastics, then swimming .... when is this kid EVER going to find a sport that he/she likes !!!! Communities - be they healthcare, farming, urban, indigenous, or whatever - are more akin to the (complex) child metaphor, than the (complicated) rocket metaphor!!!! Every community is unique ..... The rocket - child analogy seems to resonate with many people .... especially that the path to bringing up (supporting transformative change?) children is littered wiuth failed interventions, and what works for one child doesn't necessarily work for the next. It's as though the best support comes from a veritable raft of interventions, aimed at a number of levels, and provided from a range of different sources - parents, relatives, friends, teachers and peers. So it is an analogy that is easy to say - and it maybe even comes across well when you say it quickly. But does it really translate into practice at the policy level, and if so, does it imply a different approach to mainstream policy making and/or change management? If it is a useful concept, is it possible to take it further and develop some terms for describing the range of problems that may lie at different points on the continuum between complex and complicated problems? best regards Will _______________________________________________ IntSci mailing list IntSci@learningforsustainability.net http://mail.learningforsustainability.net/mailman/listinfo/intsci_learningforsustainability.net
