Three Superpowers of Transformation

We live in a world screaming for transformation and the best we seem capable of is tweaks. We’re surrounded by leaders and decision makers who share a deeply rooted obsession with scale. An obsession enabled by business models and social norms as straight jackets to keep us in our assigned place aboard the bigger is better bandwagon. Far too often we deflect attention away from the growing number of people harmed and left behind by the one-size-fits-all models, the flywheels of our most important social systems including healthcare, education and the public services we rely on. Tweaks aren’t enough, too many people are suffering, we need social system-changing transformation.

Complex Adaptive Systems

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man” Heraclitus 544 B.C.

Systems challenges require systems solutions. But because our heads explode at the thought of transforming an entire dynamic system we develop point solutions in the hope that our magic bullet (new law, technology, product, service etc.) is the right lever to nudge systems to their transformational tipping point. It rarely works. There’s just no controlling for all the independent variables in a complex adaptive system. This explains why ‘evidence-based’ point solutions almost always disappoint when the goal is systems…