networks and network weaving

As the world becomes increasingly complex, and our jobs, families, movements, and communities require more of us emotionally, managing the tension between planning and emergence gets both harder and more necessary. When pushed to our limits, it is so tempting to retire to our comfortable corners of this binary–either holding tightly to the illusion of a “perfect,” highly mapped-out plan that answers every question or going with the flow in pursuit of new opportunities as they present themselves. %

By Giles Thomson and Varvara Nikulina How can transdisciplinary researchers efficiently and effectively support diverse and time-poor actors in participatory scenario planning processes? Scenario planning is a useful tool for policy development, especially for contexts with high uncertainty and complexity as described by Bonnie McBain in her i2Insights contribution, Designing scenarios to guide robust decisions.…

A free conference exploring the power of online learning through the lens of collaboration, community, and consciousness.

We propose a novel definition of life in terms of which its emergence in the universe is expected, and its ever-creative open-ended evolution is entailed by no law. Living organisms are Kantian Wholes that achieve Catalytic Closure, Constraint Closure, and Spatial Closure. We here unite for the first time two established mathematical theories, namely Collectively Autocatalytic Sets and the Theory of the Adjacent Possible. The former establishes that a first-order phase transition to molecular reproduction is expected in the chemical evolution of the universe where the diversity and complexity of molecules increases; the latter posits that, under loose hypotheses, if the system starts with a small number of beginning molecules, each of which can combine with copies of itself or other molecules to make new molecules, over time the number of kinds of molecules increases slowly but then explodes upward hyperbolically. Together these theories imply that life is expected as a phase transition in the evolving universe. The familiar distinction between software and hardware loses its meaning in living cells. We propose new ways to study the phylogeny of metabolisms, new astronomical ways to search for life on exoplanets, new experiments to seek the emergence of the most rudimentary life, and the hint of a coherent testable pathway to prokaryotes with template replication and coding.

All our current global challenges can basically be traced back to one underlying paradigm or myth: That we are separate from others and the world.  ‍When we try to address challenges su…

How can one conciliate the claim that humans are uncertainty minimizing systems that
seek to navigate predictable and familiar environments with the claim that humans
can be creative? We call this the Enlightened Room Problem (ERP). The solution, w

Sarah Darcie, Policy & Stakeholder Youth Fellow, explains how the Climate Champions are working to elevate the needs of Indigenous Peoples, highlighting their solutions and helping change the narrative of climate finance.

The healing of injustices and the restoration of aki, of the earth—including all of the creatures who depend on her and on whom she depends—requires restoring indigeneity—that is a deep connection to place, to its sacredness and interdependencies, to cultural sensibilities that are shaped by these.2 This is an individual, collective, and planetary necessity. The restoration of indigeneity requires reconnecting to indigenous practices, whether those practices are indigenous to the Americas, Africa, Asia, or Europe. For those who are not connected or actively reconnecting, this then is your task—and yes, it can be complicated, painful, and messy. It is an extension of inner work, of cultivating the ability to be present to what is and was and then draw on this ability to help create what will be.  

If you have an equity commitment, revisit it often, if not during every significant meeting that happens. Integration is key. If you have not developed a commitment, consider it. You might ask your team, “Why are we committed to advancing equitable wellbeing and belonging in and through our work? What does this mean to us? What is in it for us? What happens if we don’t live into this commitment?”

Frances presented her paper ‘Pathways to Scale’ where she identified various strategic interventions to shift systems. She invited the audience to join a table that would discuss each pathway. Each one represented strategies that related scaling up (influencing policy) and scaling out (spreading new models).I listened as she read out the list, and then asked myself which one fit how we were working?

Check out what The California Cotton & Climate Coalition (C4) is doing to restore our connection with our working landscapes!

What we learned when creating our introductory series to systems change, Stepping Into Systems.

We think periodically acknowledging and reflecting on what didn’t work so well is good practice — and helps us move forward. We launched the Fito Network in January 2024 with a series of “welcoming…

Learning has become synonymous with formal education, which is often entangled in flawed systems that perpetuate injustice. This has resulted in a distorted perception of the true power of learning…

Why information is the unifying principle that allows us to understand the evolution of complexity in nature

SignificanceA deep understanding of social networks can be used to create an artificial tipping point, changing population behavior by fostering behavioral cascades. Here, we experimentally tes

We unpack 5 approaches to navigating systems change to help drive meaningful impact across systems change projects.

Here are the basic steps to doing a cluster map:

Grab a large piece of paper and some markers/pens (different colors help, as you can start to use them to explore the different elements of the system).
Start by identifying what you want to explore and writing it in the center of the page (this could be ‘education,’ ‘voter apathy,’ or ‘childhood obesity,’ for example).
Make sure everyone working on the map has a pen (this is not a scribbling experience where one person writes what others say; it should be that all people are contributing to the map).
Start to throw down everything that relates to the arena you are exploring (there is no wrong concept, word, or idea here — just free associate all the parts that make up the system).
Once you have a page full of random works/concepts/nodes, then start to draw connections between them (here is where you can create a key and use different colors to define different flows, such as ‘power’ and ‘government’).
Keep going until you have filled your page and it’s a complete mess or intermingled lines and words. Then, start to identity the key areas of interconnection and seek to define three new insights that have evolved from the exercise.

We like to meet initiatives with the same ambitions as ourselves - this one, Fito Networks , is a “network of networks” project from South Africa, who believes that “convening the systems” is one way to find optimism in a world seemingly dominated by traditional blocs and sovereignty. They draw

A rigorous experimentation approach (experiment-to-learn) will most likely outperform planning-based approaches (analyse-to-predict) where the challenge is dynamic and ever changing (i.e. any complex social and environmental challenge). This post explores how to do experimentation for change.