The Inner and Outer Work of Systems Transformation in the Public Sector
Join us for the second cycle of Pushing the Boundaries of Public Sector Innovation Community of Practice (registration links below)
By Dr. Penny Hagen + Lily Raphael
This blog post is part of the Pushing the Boundaries of Public Sector Innovation (PB PSI) community of practice (CoP). We are people working in- and alongside public sector organizations who share a curiosity and commitment to work more ambitiously, systemically, and respectfully on the biggest social and ecological challenges of our time. These posts are written from the diverse perspectives of different members of the CoP as we learn and explore together. Find out more about the project and/or join the CoP, here.
Register for upcoming sessions in this community of practice here, with more details about what we’re up to down below.
Inner + Outer Systems Transformation Session 3: Convening Connections, Aotearoa — Tuesday Apr. 2 1:30–3:00pm (Vancouver time) and Wednesday Apr. 3 9:30–11:00am (New Zealand time). Registration Link Here
This is an exciting shared session between this PB PSI community of practice and a group of practitioners in Aotearoa that regular meet to share and learn from one another. We will learn alongside our friends in Aotearoa and explore how we are convening spaces that hold and make explicit the connections between personal and systems work — drawing on a specific learning approach from Aotearoa New Zealand focused on transformation in the ecosystem that supports the Early Years and Child Wellbeing.
Watch the recordings of previous sessions here:
Inner + Outer Systems Transformation Session 1: Setting the Foundations — February 20/21 2024
Inner + Outer Systems Transformation Session 2: Liminal Spaces, Vancouver — Tuesday March 12/13 2024.
What might it take to transform public sector systems?
Governments are facing increasing pressures to address complex challenges like climate change, growing inequity, reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, and many others at the scale and rate that these challenges demand. We know we need to operate differently in order for different outcomes to be possible. The public sector needs to update the paradigms, processes, systems, structures, and the tools of their trade to better respond to the complexity of the challenges we face.
Shifting how government operates to prioritize climate and social justice means engaging beyond processes and tools into mindsets and values. It means a reconfiguration how resources are allocated and tracked, and how decisions are made. This is transformational work. So how might institutions — and people — renowned for their stability and slow rate of change ready themselves for this kind of transformation?
We have found that our work to support systems change has focused on what needs to be done to close the gap between our aspirational institutional aims, values, goals, strategies, and how they become new and implemented practice. But what does this look like? What does it take?
We are working from these premises:
- Systems transformation work requires us to operate at multiple levels, and engage in the relationships between people and systems.
- This kind of work is something we can cultivate the conditions for, but it requires us to develop new kinds of skills, competencies, and infrastructures.
- It requires shifts in both people and systems. In other forums we have talked about this as scaling deep (here and here). Going deep happens at personal and team levels alongside systems-in-place levels. It is structural — teams, organisations, collaboratives, systems, places, policy. It is relational — within self, in community, in place, with land, with environment and beyond. It is temporal — pasts, presents, futures. It is fractal — the repeating patterns from small to large.
- Scaling deep often feels like doing double-work, as it requires working simultaneously at these multiple levels at the same time.
Cultivating Conditions for Deep Transformation
We are seeking to challenge and shift those underpinning structures, assumptions and values in order to shift the trajectory of that or subsequent programs or projects into something that is based on a different set of assumptions and values. The practice of scaling deep involves navigating this multi-level work, holding in view the connections across the boundaries of people, planning, policy, implementation, and across histories and time. Scaling deep requires keeping attuned to the connections between these different levels, and not return to the usual silos between them that keeps thinking and action compartmentalized.
At the same time we think it is something that we can cultivate the conditions for. Within the public sector people are always working at pace, with accountability practices that keep us focused on tasks at the surface level. How can we continue the work at pace and also create the space within that momentum to grapple with more than the ‘what’ of the work, including (for example): pausing and checking assumptions; creating space for brave and courageous conversations; naming and skillfully hospicing what is no longer serving; and learning, reflecting, and acting on things such as values and relationships as they are shifting through the work. It requires slowing down (whilst still moving), beginning differently, unlearning, re-patterning, and unfreezing.
Please join us in this Cycle of our Community of Practice
Through the three sessions in this cycle we will explore what folks operating in these realms are experimenting with. How do we hold these different micro and macro spaces? How are we making room for courageous conversations and healing spaces? How do we work to shift at the other levels? How do people maintain the pace? How do we enable it and convene for this deep work, including when it’s not recognised or valued? How do we invite people in and help prepare them for the journey?
In order to dig into these challenges with you, we’re launching a series of three exploratory conversations between February and April 2024 to explore the inner and outer work of systems transformation. These will be co-hosted by Dr. Penny Hagen and Lily Raphael, with some special guests along the way.
Session 1: Foundations
Tuesday Feb 20 12:30–2:00pm (Vancouver time)
Session description:
We will begin by exploring some of the foundational questions we are holding about inner and outer systems transformation. How are public sector innovators understanding the relationship between personal (inner) and systems (outer) transformation work? What are the emerging competencies, capacities, and capabilities that need to be developed to enable this? How are we inviting people in? How are we preparing people for transformative work?
Session 2: Liminal Spaces, Vancouver
Tuesday March 12, 1:30–3:00pm (Vancouver time)
Session description:
How do we reckon with scaling deep and scaling out? While we witness personal and interpersonal transformation of people in the public sector, what is the process of making sure that is reflected, embedded and replacing stuck systems and structures? How do we navigate the dissonance between transformative learning and the expectation for tangible yet transformative outcomes for our communities and ecosystems? We will share stories and practices from Vancouver-based practitioners on how we’ve been navigating these liminal spaces of transformation.
Session 3: Convening Connections, Aotearoa
Tuesday Apr. 2 1:30–3:00pm (Vancouver time)
Session description:
How are we convening spaces that hold and make explicit the connections between personal and systems work — drawing on a specific learning approach from Aotearoa New Zealand focused on transformation in the ecosystem that supports the Early Years and Child Wellbeing.
This blog post is part of the Pushing the Boundaries of Public Sector Innovation (PB PSI) community of practice (CoP). We are people working in- and alongside public sector organizations who share a curiosity and commitment to work more ambitiously, systemically, and respectfully on the biggest social and ecological challenges of our time. These posts are written from the diverse perspectives of different members of the CoP as we learn and explore together. Find out more about the project and/or join the CoP, here.
