Giving Compass' Take:

• This center at the Johnson Center addresses how a more systematic approach to social change will help keep young people excited and engaged for a longer period of time.

• There are other benefits of systems change, but executing on such a strategy requires patience, commitment and active listening. What are the obstacles organizations face in these areas? 

• Here are five steps for contributing to complex systems change.

The ultimate goal of social movements is change. The issue may be saving the earth’s oceans, expanding voting rights, improving a group’s standard of living, or addressing one of the many social ills that exist. The bottom line is that those of us representing a cause want something specific to change. While passionate, enthusiastic young people (18 to 30) often respond spontaneously to the actions we take to inspire them, couldn’t we use a more measured, systematic approach to launching and sustaining our social movements?

Let’s examine taking a systems approach to change in the realm of social causes.

Merriam-Webster defines a system as “a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole.” The definition says nothing about being constant or restrictive. Systems can, and must, leave plenty of room for passion, enthusiasm, and spontaneity within them.

In a systems framework for addressing social issues, the “interdependent group of items” will fall within segments of what we’ll call the supporter’s journey: awareness, understanding, acceptance, and adoption. Within those segments will be various tactics and measurable milestones leading to outcomes designed to implement ideas in concert and make adjustments as necessary to improve those outcomes.

Read the full article about taking a systems approach to change by Derrick Feldmann at johnsoncenter.org.