Practical Guide to System Change
Mike and Ali are members of Golden Key’s Spark Team. Mike writes here about the development of the team and explains why the Practical Guide to System Change was created.
The Spark Team supports people, organisations and communities in a quest to make system change happen. Our aspiration is to activate a network of people who have the power and agency, individually and collectively, to make positive change happen for people with complex needs.
We created the team in mid-2016 in response to the needs of the Golden Key partnership. It took time to figure out our purpose – this involved a lot of mistakes (which we took as learning opportunities) and reflection. We needed to focus on what we could do that was helpful for the people we work with.
Our values shape the type of work we do and how we go about doing it:
Anyone can make change happen. We believe that everyone has the opportunity, and is in a unique position, to influence change.
People have the knowledge, skills and experience to take informed action. We trust people to co-create a future informed by their experience.
The best people to change the system are the people in the system. We place value in: people understanding their motivation to create change, and people recognising that they have the power to take action.
Connectedness can lead to opportunities. We’re always on the lookout for connections and we recognise that connectedness can lead to opportunities.
A consequence of supporting and activating others in their system change intentions is that we have opportunity to talk to people about the system change work they’re involved with – this includes what is happening, but also how and why it is happening.
These stories, from the people making system change happen, are rich with knowledge, skills, ideas and personal experience. It became clear that there were some common themes within these stories and some really interesting learning features.
The Practical Guide to System Change concept was formed in early 2019 with the initial intention to capture some of these stories and this learning. Moving from concept through to development helped crystallise the real aspiration that sits behind this: to support people in uncovering and accelerating their own approach to making system change happen. This doesn’t mean following a pathway to a specific destination, but it does mean having access to the stories and learning experiences of others when setting out.
The process of developing the Practical Guide to System Change stretched out over a long period of time. It’s a resource which we hope will continue to evolve; being developed and shaped by the ongoing stories of system change as they happen.
A considered approach with a focus on consultation and collaboration were (and continue to be) central features in developing the content and design of this resource; it’s critical that the content is accessible to a diverse audience because inclusivity is a fundamental attribute of meaningful systemic change.
We have tried to ensure there is a consistent narrative and sometimes we have found it helpful to reflect on what the Practical Guide is not. For example, it is not a ‘how to’ guide to system change, neither is it a ‘toolkit’ offering step by step instructions. Also, it is not a theoretical resource based on how the Spark Team think system change should or could happen. It is a collection of learning experiences from the people who are working within the systems where they hope to affect positive systemic change.
With this in mind, it’s important to emphasise that The Practical Guide to System Change is a resource that sits alongside a whole range of other support; this support can be accessed through the community of people making system change happen, and the Spark Team continue to be part of this community.