A System Leader's Fieldbook
Gaining traction on today’s ever-more complex challenges requires collective leadership. That means practicing new ways of operating at the levels of Self, Team, Organization, and System. This online Fieldbook provides tools and resources for system leaders to use in supporting people and groups as they develop the skills to accelerate progress on intractable problems together.
To make real and lasting change, we need to:
Recognize that we are part of the systems we seek to change: Self
Interact productively with—and learn from—others: Team
Collaborate across internal stakeholder groups: Organization
Work across boundaries to co-create the future: System
Hover over the different segments of the circle, to the left, to identify the modules that will help you build your capacity to become a system leader.
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Developing Systems-Wise People
How do we help people to work more effectively through systems thinking?
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Creating the Conditions for Shared Leadership
How do we create the conditions so everyone on our team can actively lead change?
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Creating the Conditions for Shared Leadership
How do we create the conditions so everyone on our team can actively lead change?
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Engaging Stakeholders Around Complex Problems
How do we engage stakeholders in addressing complex problems together?
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Building Organizational Capacity to Focus on the Whole
How do we build the capacity to focus on shifting systems, not just improving the parts?
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Creating the Conditions for Shared Leadership
How do we create the conditions so everyone on our team can actively lead change?
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Engaging Stakeholders Around Complex Problems
How do we engage stakeholders in addressing complex problems together?
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Growing as a Systems Leader
How do I build my leadership capacity to clarify and realize my highest aspirations?
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Developing Systems-Wise People
How do we help people to work more effectively through systems thinking?
Building Organizational Capacity to Focus on the Whole
“We knew the U.S. had a rapidly growing gap between the supply and demand for trades labor…. Only by reflecting on decades of shifting variables did we figure out where the leverage points existed in the broader system. Once that was clear, we worked across a broad swatch of stakeholders to collectively design an initial program [to train 20,000 construction workers over the next decade] that would bend that trend.”- Stacey Tank, Home Depot
Creating the Conditions for Shared Leadership
“There are issues of deep importance in Todos Santos and in Baja California Sur; in fact, many of these issues are representative of challenges around the world. In order to address these challenges, we need to work and learn together across borders and cultures, and share our knowledge and experience.”- Kim Kita, Colorado State University
Developing Systems-wise People
“Change must start from within—with deep self-awareness. We start by identifying and discussing what each individual already has—their roots—and we work with them as they learn from a mentor and practice by doing.”- Udom Hongchatikul, Consultant
Engaging Stakeholders Around Complex Problems
“Tools for transformation and learning will have little impact if not embraced and practiced by the community. Outside helpers like NOS cannot restore the Ensenada; the only ones who can do that are the community members themselves….Many felt that the real aim of environmentalist NGOs was simply to force the fisherman to stop fishing. In turn, it took time for NOS [Noroeste Sustentable] to appreciate that there were strong restoration leaders within the community.”- Hubert Méndez, leaders of the fishing cooperative OPR
Growing as a System Leader
“I received a deep calling from the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica to help protect its rainforest and marine ecosystem in a way that would also support the local communities and indigenous population…. I also wanted to explore how to lead from deep personal, collective, and earth-based awareness in order to steward and design new systems that are in alignment with nature and supportive of life on the planet.”- Jennifer Menke, entrepreneur