Exciting work and thank you so much for your honesty! “Asking for feedback from the communities we aim to support” is complex, time-consuming and vital for program quality. Feedback loops that are iterative (ask-tell-ask-tell) are starting to emerge and programs are better for it. Crowdsourcing, citizen dashboards and taking Time to Listen are emerging in international development as well. Exciting times. Thanks again that you “amplify and sustain the voices of the people for whom the systems exist.”
Peter, as one of the authors of “Dawn of System Leadership” I want to thank you for elevating this important dimension in the dialogue.
What a powerful shift in perspective if, 1-3-5 years from now, program and policy decisions were never made without the inclusion of beneficiary data and insight. A key task of the system leader is to help all those involved in change “see the full system.” Critical to seeing the system well is being able to see it through the eyes of the beneficiary. Another key task of system leaders is to help players in the system, including other leaders, see the blind spots they may have related to barriers to change and opportunities for positive progress. Without the benefit of beneficiary perspective on the system, there will likely be many blind spots! Finally, a key task of the system leader is to facilitate the conditions for players in the system to co-create solutions. As you point out, a newly energized focus on methodologies such as human centered design are helping to accelerate beneficiary inclusion in co-creating elements of systems change.
We agree that meaningful progress here will require many more methods of engagement (while it is exciting to see how quickly some effective methods of attaining beneficiary perspective are spreading, there is much more to be done). We’re optimistic that, as you and other system leaders shine a spotlight on the importance of beneficiary perspective and data, your efforts can catalyze collective leadership to invest significantly greater time and effort in this essential element to transformational change.
This is such an important article! Thank you for your candid thoughts. I would suggest that the voices of the providers of the service also be added to the conversation. Within an organization, they are the most likely to have a sense of what beneficiaries are striving for and the most likely to understand the system barriers to reaching those goals. When Service Providers submit reports to funders, these reports tend to be written by administrators without feedback from the actual service providers on the ground. As a physician in a County government health system, the lack of engagement of both patients and ‘in the trenches’ care providers is contributing to a sense of demoralization and deterioration of our ability to deliver high quality care. Although I’ve seen similar challenges in Rwanda, my experience is that bringing these voices to the table has been a much smoother process there than in the US!
Peter,
This is a powerful comment. In my work in the Sustainable Food Lab, we think of getting the whole system in the room, or at least a microcosm of the system. Our system is the food and agriculture system, so there are no “beneficiaries, ” but there are definitely people with different perspectives and different capabilities to influence the future.
My shorthand criteria for initiative leadership are two: influence and diversity. We want enough influential people to act effectively, and we want sufficient diversity so that people act on behalf of all the players. We started with corporate executives and NGO activists, and many others. One activist cautioned that we wanted not only stakeholders but also those who were used to being hit by stakes.
In the end, relationships and personal growth are among the most inspiring outcomes of this work, and institutional change is necessary for impact at a scale that matters.
Since 2008, we have been scaling resident ownership of “mobile”/manufactured home communities after 30 years of market-based systems change work (and 25% market share) in NH!
Engaging community members has been a significant challenge for us as a national organization that supports local ownership. To confront that directly, we took two significant steps:
1. We worked with community leaders to incorporate an association of resident-owned communities and allocated 3 seats on the national Board that are elected by the communities themselves. It’s been huge for me to go to communities and say, “3 of my bosses are elected by you!”
2. We implemented the Brand IDEA framework from the pivotal nonprofit branding research by Natalie Kylander of the Kennedy School, research I first learned about in the SSIR! For the current plan, we’ve engaged community leaders directly in person at our national and regional leadership institutes as well as through a system wide survey instrument and online forum.
Even still, it’s constant work to engage our community leaders but honestly it’s worth every effort. I love that our direction is completely in line with our communities’ priorities for us. It brings demonstrable truth to our mantra, “We succeed when our communities succeed.” ROC on!
COMMENTS
BY Jindra Cekan
ON April 2, 2015 12:02 AM
Exciting work and thank you so much for your honesty! “Asking for feedback from the communities we aim to support” is complex, time-consuming and vital for program quality. Feedback loops that are iterative (ask-tell-ask-tell) are starting to emerge and programs are better for it. Crowdsourcing, citizen dashboards and taking Time to Listen are emerging in international development as well. Exciting times. Thanks again that you “amplify and sustain the voices of the people for whom the systems exist.”
BY John Kania
ON April 3, 2015 07:25 AM
Peter, as one of the authors of “Dawn of System Leadership” I want to thank you for elevating this important dimension in the dialogue.
What a powerful shift in perspective if, 1-3-5 years from now, program and policy decisions were never made without the inclusion of beneficiary data and insight. A key task of the system leader is to help all those involved in change “see the full system.” Critical to seeing the system well is being able to see it through the eyes of the beneficiary. Another key task of system leaders is to help players in the system, including other leaders, see the blind spots they may have related to barriers to change and opportunities for positive progress. Without the benefit of beneficiary perspective on the system, there will likely be many blind spots! Finally, a key task of the system leader is to facilitate the conditions for players in the system to co-create solutions. As you point out, a newly energized focus on methodologies such as human centered design are helping to accelerate beneficiary inclusion in co-creating elements of systems change.
We agree that meaningful progress here will require many more methods of engagement (while it is exciting to see how quickly some effective methods of attaining beneficiary perspective are spreading, there is much more to be done). We’re optimistic that, as you and other system leaders shine a spotlight on the importance of beneficiary perspective and data, your efforts can catalyze collective leadership to invest significantly greater time and effort in this essential element to transformational change.
BY Wendy Leonard, MD, AAHIVS
ON April 3, 2015 08:33 AM
This is such an important article! Thank you for your candid thoughts. I would suggest that the voices of the providers of the service also be added to the conversation. Within an organization, they are the most likely to have a sense of what beneficiaries are striving for and the most likely to understand the system barriers to reaching those goals. When Service Providers submit reports to funders, these reports tend to be written by administrators without feedback from the actual service providers on the ground. As a physician in a County government health system, the lack of engagement of both patients and ‘in the trenches’ care providers is contributing to a sense of demoralization and deterioration of our ability to deliver high quality care. Although I’ve seen similar challenges in Rwanda, my experience is that bringing these voices to the table has been a much smoother process there than in the US!
BY Farouke Kilimanjaro
ON April 5, 2015 04:41 AM
the systems change paradigma is what is needed when countries are making transitions from dictatorship/colonialism to democracy.
BY Hal Hamilton
ON April 9, 2015 06:40 AM
Peter,
This is a powerful comment. In my work in the Sustainable Food Lab, we think of getting the whole system in the room, or at least a microcosm of the system. Our system is the food and agriculture system, so there are no “beneficiaries, ” but there are definitely people with different perspectives and different capabilities to influence the future.
My shorthand criteria for initiative leadership are two: influence and diversity. We want enough influential people to act effectively, and we want sufficient diversity so that people act on behalf of all the players. We started with corporate executives and NGO activists, and many others. One activist cautioned that we wanted not only stakeholders but also those who were used to being hit by stakes.
In the end, relationships and personal growth are among the most inspiring outcomes of this work, and institutional change is necessary for impact at a scale that matters.
Hal
BY Paul Bradley
ON April 23, 2015 08:54 AM
Since 2008, we have been scaling resident ownership of “mobile”/manufactured home communities after 30 years of market-based systems change work (and 25% market share) in NH!
Engaging community members has been a significant challenge for us as a national organization that supports local ownership. To confront that directly, we took two significant steps:
1. We worked with community leaders to incorporate an association of resident-owned communities and allocated 3 seats on the national Board that are elected by the communities themselves. It’s been huge for me to go to communities and say, “3 of my bosses are elected by you!”
2. We implemented the Brand IDEA framework from the pivotal nonprofit branding research by Natalie Kylander of the Kennedy School, research I first learned about in the SSIR! For the current plan, we’ve engaged community leaders directly in person at our national and regional leadership institutes as well as through a system wide survey instrument and online forum.
Even still, it’s constant work to engage our community leaders but honestly it’s worth every effort. I love that our direction is completely in line with our communities’ priorities for us. It brings demonstrable truth to our mantra, “We succeed when our communities succeed.” ROC on!