A systemic transformation requires that multiple stakeholders share a common understanding of the challenges ahead. By understanding how symptoms and root causes are interconnected it is possible to gain an overview of the systems surrounding these challenges. Here, systemic design offers us several tools to guide this process.

Leverage points

A central aspect of the systemic mapping process is to identify the crucial elements in a system which we can use to promote far-reaching change: we call these leverage points. According to systems thinker Donella Meadows, leverage points are “places within a complex system (…) where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything.”

Finding leverage points is therefore central to transforming a system. Each leverage point is connected to one or more stakeholders, and having the overview of such points can help identify and organise future demonstrators.

Donella Meadows describes leverage points on a scale: from those that are superficial to those with a great potential for transformation. Changing mindsets and being able to envision the new system are some of the most transformational leverage points, for example.

Using gigamaps to understand the system

Gigamapping is a central design tool to capture, organise and process information, and to extract insights about a system. A co-created gigamap gives stakeholders a shared picture of the system from different perspectives; political, economic, technical, ecological, cultural, social, and so on. Different kinds of information can exist in a gigamap: from qualitative data, to rich ethnographic accounts of a situation.

Through this mapping process it is possible to define challenges by answering questions about stakeholders, structures, perspectives, goals, and constraints in the system. These maps serve as knowledge base for what is currently happening and to start the discussion on what happens next.

This process is iterative. Iterations of this knowledge base should be done when onboarding new stakeholders in a growing ecosystem as well as during later stages of the process.

Lastly, we use compeling narratives to unpack the complexity of the systems around us in order to communicate the work, gather support and bring new stakeholders into our ecosystem.