Power of Purpose: A Call to Action for Transformative Change
As we work from a pillar rooted in the power of purpose fostering authentic human connections, to build a collective identity rooted in a systems change learning mindset. This isn't accomplished in a single meeting or working session; it is a continuous commitmentto challenging our approaches, practices, and behaviors and being brave in how we engage for greater good. This necessitates deep examinations of our mental models, including how we think about societal constructs, systems of governance, and community connections.
Mental models are frameworks of deeply held beliefs and assumptions, shaped by social norms and lived experiences, that we all use to assess situations. To truly unpack and disrupt these models, we must engage in deep dives, listen, reflect, learn, understand, challenge, and displace biased forms of thinking.
Leading transformative change requires a bold vision, a departure from the familiar, and a individual and collective commitment to creating/building better realities. We must envision a reality where the impossible becomes possible, challenging the status quo and igniting a sense of urgency.
Systems change recognizes the interconnectedness of relationships and power dynamics between individuals, within teams, organizations, communities, and society. By understanding these intricate influences/connections, we can identify opportunities for disruption, repair broken relationships, and forge pathways for repair, and growth. Fueled by audacious hope and a shared commitment to our shared humanity, we can overcome obstacles, find creative solutions, and persevere through challenges.
Our current culture/s demands a call to action. We must move beyond the status quo and embrace the power of purpose to transform narratives. By building awareness, education, and channeling our energy, and sharing power, we can create a culture where everyone thrives, contributions are recognized, and equitable treatment is paramount.
Transformative change is an on-going journey, not a destination. It requires continuous learning, adaptation, and a willingness to embrace uncertainty. Like learning to ride a bicycle, we navigate the complexities through trial and error, experimentation, practice, action, and an unwavering belief in the possibility of better outcomes. This is how we address root causes of systemic problems within our institutions, organizations, governance, communities, and society. Thinking alone, at any level, is insufficient. We must develop the capacity to think more broadly, deeply, and collaboratively to achieve effective, coordinated action within a complex adaptive system.
This journey is fueled by both data and learning narratives. We must not only collect information but also share our experiences, struggles, triumphs, setbacks, amplifying the voices of one another to create a more inclusive and equitable environment.
A Path to Real Change
Real, transformative change demands that we challenge the structures that perpetuate inequality and share power with those who have been silenced and/or marginalized. By reimagining power dynamics and creating new opportunities for participation/inclusion, we can pave the way towards healthy and equitable environments.
Our transformative change integrates programmatic, practice, and community advocacy and awareness strategies to address root causes at all levels. We recognize that inequity and exclusionary practices are mutually reinforcing and must be tackled holistically.
Level three Structural Change (explicit):
- Policies: Government, institutional, and organizational rules, regulations, procedures and priorities that guide areas of focus.
- Practices: Espoused activities aimed at social and environmental progress, including standards, guidelines, or informal habits within entities, such as participatory budgeting or community-led data collection.
- Resource Flows: How money, people, knowledge, information, and assets are allocated and distributed.
Level two Engaged Change (semi-explicit):
- Relationships & Connections: Quality of connections and communication among community members, especially those with differing histories and viewpoints.
- Power Dynamics: The distribution of decision-making power, authority, and influence among individuals and organizations.
Level one Transformative Change (implicit):
- Mental Models: Habits of thought—deeply held beliefs, assumptions, and taken-for-granted ways of operating which influence how we think, how we make decisions, interact-behaviors, and how we express ourselves.
To disrupt and uproot unhealthy mental models, we start with learning circles, taking time to deeply discuss the issues we're experiencing and working to solve. This requires the inclusion of grassroots organizations, advocates at all levels, and subject matter experts with lived and learned experience, achieved through power-sharing in decision-making. It also requires robust information sharing with feedback loops across and between levels to continuously inform the process. These mechanisms should be coupled with intuitive problem-solving approaches, including community-led data gathering, to address day-to-day challenges cohesively.
Community-based roots in advocacy, combined with a broader systems perspective, require full immersion through peer-to-peer learning. Community-based coalitions must ensure that individuals with lived experience are catalysts in processes. This creates a learning movement structured around horizontal & vertical knowledge sharing within informal learning groups.
Focus on transformative systems change:
- Results-Based Success: Focus on processes and outcomes partnering with community members to improve impacts.
- Equity-Focused: Hold ourselves accountable by modeling practices that provide opportunities, improve outcomes, and increase voice and representation.
- Power\Dynamics: Understand and leverage power dynamics to positively influence and effect change.
- Collaborative Actions: Actively manage relationships across components to advance common goals.
- Inclusive Culture: Nurture an environment of interaction to build trust, inclusion, learning, celebration, and healing.
- Adaptive Leadership: Effectively manage change, complexity, tensions, and conflict at all levels.
Address the "Wicked Problems" with a Transformative Change approach. Humanities problems are wicked, meaning they are complex issues with interconnected causes, no clear solutions, and often conflicting with stakeholder values. To address these challenges, we can apply the power of purpose for transformative change based on components/elements of the problem:
- Narrow focus points: Clearly articulate connected problems, identify interrelatedness and interconnected parts, and analyze root causes.
- Collaborate: Engage diverse stakeholders, foster shared understanding, and establish shared goals through collective actions.
- Accountability: Design multi-faceted interventions, leverage one another's strengths, and adapt based on experimentation, feedback and learning.
- Learn and Adapt: Monitor and evaluate impacts, analyze results, identify emergent shifts, capture learnings and promote knowledge sharing.
- Share Power: Analyze power structures, share power with marginalized groups, tap into their voices, their leadership and advocate for substantive practices, process, policy, and behavior change.
Applying this framework involves providing mentorship, support services, training, share-outs, in culturally responsive pedagogy, implementing equitable formulas, and advocating for policies that address root causes.
Key Considerations:
- Transformative change requires long-term commitment, sustained effort, continuous learning, and investment.
- Wicked problems are complex and unpredictable, demanding flexibility, innovativeness, emergent and adaptive responses.
- Centering equity and justice is crucial for addressing root causes and ensuring that we develop solutions that benefit communities.
**This work is adapted from:
Shabazz Rah-Khem, Ph.D. 2018 Dissertation, Case Western Reserve University
THE WATER OF SYSTEMS CHANGE, BY JOHN KANIA, MARK KRAMER, PETER SENGE June 2018
