Understanding Systemness

“Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing ‘patterns of change’ rather than ‘static snapshots.”

Peter Senge

I’ve received lots of feedback to my last blog post in which I shared my summary of key points from the New Zealand findings in the recent OECD Economic Survey. In that post I concluded by saying the evidence is clear – we need to become more focused on becoming ‘systems thinkers’ – at every level of our education system – as principals, teachers, board members etc.

I’ve been pondering since and thought I’d write this follow-up post to explore a little more of what is meant by systems thinking, and to provide some illustrations of what this could look like in practice based on some of my personal work over the past decade.

A movement to experience systemness

Last week Michael Fullan sent me a preview copy of a new article he’d written for EdWeek, titled 8-steps to revolutionise our system after an email exchange we’d had about system leadership. In the article he identifies eight interacting factors for system change in education, many of which will come as no surprise to many who follow Fullan’s work – but interesting to note what he has to say about AI in this current list!

As with my conclusion about what the OECD report suggests, Michael concludes from his own work that what we need to be focusing on is a system-level way of thinking and acting. I found the final two paragraphs of the article particularly interesting, where he says;

“It’s a bigger call: Join a movement to experience systemness change in these times. It is a power move for equity and equality.

Power With

Fullan references the work of Mary Parker Follett, a pioneering management thinker, who challenged traditional views of power as domination or coercion in organisations and systems. Instead, she proposed the concept of “power-with,” emphasising collaboration, shared decision-making and the creation of a shared purpose. It focuses on building relationships, resolving conflicts constructively, and leveraging the strengths of individuals within a group.

These qualities are fundamental to the notion of systems leadership and systems thinking. They are also the qualities missing in so many areas of our current education leadership, where the focus appears to be on ‘things’ rather than relationships, on top-down rather than shared decision-making, and on the immediate rather than the longer-term.

Of course, cynics will argue that this approach to leadership merely causes ‘sludge’ in our system, and defeats innovation due to the drawn-out process of achieving consensus on important issues. I can’t argue – I’ve certainly experienced that in leadership roles I’ve had. But the challenge remains, are we leading simply for short-term gain, or are we looking to achieve longer-term, sustainable gains that have maximum impact for the future?

Education Ecosystems

Over the past decade or so I have been asked to work alongside groups and organisations seeking to achieve more transformative approaches and outcomes in their particular contexts. In each case I’ve spent time engaging with numerous stakeholders, researching the basis of the ‘current state’ and identifying the options for moving forward in a way that will ensure those involved are doing so with a clear view of the system as a whole as described by Senge in the quote at the start of this post.

Of course, that’s not always the most palatable approach for many people. Some are driven by needing to find a quick solution to a short-term problem, while others are cautious about potential blow-outs of time and money. These are very understandable reactions – and need to be taken into account in any visioning process. My argument, however, is that providing a shared view of the system as a whole allows individuals and groups to then continue focusing on the things that are of immediate concern – but guided in their decision-making by referencing the ‘bigger picture’ and understanding how their decision(s) will impact on what is happening elsewhere in the system.

Some of this systems thinking is implicit in the way our education system operates (or is supposed to operate) currently. There is the implicit understanding, for example, that there should be a focus on developing foundational literacy and numeracy skills in the early years of schooling so that students are able to operate more effectively (and independently) as they progress through the schooling system. This simple example illustrates a view of our system that is focused on the learner and how various parts of the system accommodate and adapt to the changing needs of the students over time.

Sadly, that isn’t always the case in reality. Many students come to school without even the very basic skills of oral language that are a precursor to learning to read and write, for example. And then there are the issues reported at various transition points in the student’s journey through school – between EY and primary school, or primary to intermediate, and from intermediate to secondary school. And what about the transitions beyond that to further study or employment? And so the emphasis turns to finding ‘quick fix’ or ‘silver bullet’ solutions, aimed at urgently remediating the problem as perceived – but often without the broader thinking required to identify the broader impacts of such decisions on the system as a whole or how the innovation may be sustained.

Over the past few years we’ve seen reports suggesting that the mindset adopted by many as a result of our operating as ‘self-managing schools’ under Tomorrow’s Schools has caused many schools to operate too autonomously, and becoming competitive instead of collaborative in the way they operate. The same can be said for some in the way they operate internally, with scarcity of resources or limited opportunities for career advancement etc. driving competition between colleagues in the same institution. We urgently need to see more systemness emerge and systems-thinking leadership – people able to grasp the bigger picture of the system we’re a part of and how every action and decision we make has implications elsewhere – both now and for the future.

This thinking is what has informed some of the work I’ve done over recent years – which I’ve summarised below with illustrations from the reports I’ve written. In each case, the illustration serves to tie together ideas that are teased out in some detail in the report, so while I’m not at liberty to share the entire report – the illustrations below are intended simply to show how the idea of a system working together can be represented.

Gisborne: A Learning City

Around a decade ago I was asked to undertake some work on behalf of the Eastland Community Trust who were wanting to understand how they might be able to better support opportunities for learners in the region – at school and onto further study. The Trust had been very active in supporting a number of key community initiatives such as the provision of health services and support of local industry etc., and interest was now turning to the work of local secondary schools. After lots of community consultation, it became clear that, while some initiatives could be pursued to support the work of local secondary schools, there needed to be a much broader view of the relationships among and between each school and among and between a range of other community agencies and organisations that had, in effect, a stakeholder interest in the outcomes of these local schools – both as contributors to and consumers of what they did – providing pathways for students through and beyond their time at school.

The illustration above was an attempt to capture the scope of these relationships, starting with the student at the centre, surrounded by the choice of secondary schools she/he may attend, and the network of other services supporting them. Beyond that (in green) are the environments from which the students enter the secondary schools – brining with them the experience and skills developed there, and so illustrating the need for alignment and coherence in what is being done there. The outside loop (in blue) illustrates the pathways beyond the secondary experience, and how these also need to be considered in the longer-term journey of each learner as contributing to a ‘flourishing’ local community into the future.

Christchurch: Digitally Connected

Following the earthquakes in Christchurch in 2011 there was an urgent need to repair the city’s infrastructure services (water, electricity etc.) At the same time, NZ was rolling out its Ultra Fast Broadband initiative, and the city was keen to leverage this opportunity as it re-conceptualised and rebuilt many of the schools in the region. The Ministry of Education commissioned me to provide a report on what might be required and how this could be achieved – a process that involved extensive consultation with community, local businesses and IT service providers.

At the time there was a lot of immediate emphasis being given to the purchase of devices and setting up of internal school networks – but less on what this meant across the whole of the city in terms of things like connecting infrastructure and provision of security and access protocols for example. Beyond that was a huge scope for imagining the opportunities that could exists then for a more ‘connected’ learning environment where the complete learning journey of every student in the city could be catered for. The graphic above was included in the report to illustrate, at a top level, the pathway of the learner (in yellow), showing the range of organisations and services that she/he may encounter during that time, and how an alignment among all of these would add significant value to the learning of the individual and to the overall social and intellectual capital of the city.

That illustration was simply the horizontal view of how things were or should be operating in terms of the human interactions and experience. Below that were the many IT-related systems and services required to make that work more efficiently and sustainably – with the services layer and the infrastructure layer shown in the graphic below:

This was (and is) the challenge for the city – and for our nation – as we operate in such a highly devolved education system. Devoting time, energy and resources to understand and design the infrastructure and services that support a thriving, digitally enabled learning ecosystem requires a high degree of systems-thinking, and understanding that these things cannot be ‘solved’ at a local school level, and in many cases, will require a significant level of collaborative buy-in to make happen – something that’s been in short supply since the emergence of Tomorrow’s Schools.

Digital Strategy: An End to End Perspective

More recently I have been working alongside the Ministry of Education in the development of their National Digital Strategy. While the final product falls well short of what I’d hoped a National Strategy might contain, there is a lot in here that, if followed, will provide the foundation for a robust, national approach to a digitally-enabled education system.

The graphic above was something I produced as a contribution to the thinking – and a summary representation of it made its way into the final document. In this diagram I attempted to show the need for systems-thinking in relation to how the pieces of the strategy might fit together. In the consultation process there were submissions from stakeholders at all levels, from those who supply the technical connections and hardware, to those who supply digital services (SMS, LMS etc,) through to those providing curriculum and professional learning services.

The image serves to illustrate the inter-connectedness of all of these things. For example, while it is desirable to be purchasing digital devices for students in schools, these are not going to be much use if there’s no reliable and affordable internet provision, nor if there’s no software to run on them, nor if noone knows how to use them effectively to support learning. The chain links at the top level were an attempt to illustrate that if we leave any of these things out the whole chain is broken and the system fails.

This may seem like a ‘no-brainer’ that barely needs to be pointed out – but it’s concerning to me how often I engage with schools and parts of the MoE and find that there are distinct silos within which people are operating and a lack of connection across or between them to ensure that the system as whole is able to function effectively.

A key problem here is that, for many (individuals, schools and agencies and government), thinking like this becomes too much to cope with and too big of a job. It seems overwhelming, and so it becomes easier to simply focus on what’s at hand and what lies within our ‘locus of control’ so that we can ensure we can produce results in the short term that we can feel confident about.

Don’t get me wrong, we need people focused on the development of solutions that fit within their ‘wheelhouse’ – but it is much more helpful if there is a ‘map’ that they are working to and which they have a working knowledge and understanding of, as they make their day to day decisions. This is a key part of being a systems-thinker and a systems-leader, and the only way we’ll achieve the sort of systemness that Michael Fullan speaks of in his paper.

Call to action

The world of education is complex, and there’s no silver bullet. But the good news is, you don’t have to become a superhero overnight. Here are some steps you can take to start thinking more systemically:

• Shift your perspective: Move beyond your immediate role and try to see the bigger picture. How do your actions impact others in the system?
• Seek out collaboration: Break down silos and build relationships with others who play different roles in the educational ecosystem.
• Embrace lifelong learning: Systems thinking is a continuous process. Stay curious and keep exploring new ideas and perspectives.

Why not share your thoughts and experiences with systems thinking in education in the comments below. Let’s build a community of leaders and learners who can work together to create a thriving educational ecosystem for all.