System Change
Every organisation is a system.
Imagine you are a city who procures food, an international food company, or a local nonprofit running a small food programme. All three of these organisations are a “system”, or a series of interconnected entities working together to fulfill a goal.
Since the 1950s, the goal of industrial food systems has been food efficiency, producing more food for less. If an organisation changes this goal in attempts to build a more sustainable food system, the activities and entities that work together - the farmers, food producers, retailers, customers - may find themselves working against a system that hasn’t yet changed.
Systems are made of two general components. Materials are only one half of the puzzle.
Technology, infrastructure, tools, finance, digital platforms - these are all critical parts of a system. Think of materials as the hardware of an organisation. In a food system, this could be farming equipment, food packaging, retailer stores, or the food consumers eat at home. Building better tools or investing in more sustainable materials is a key part of decarbonisation.
And yet, materials alone are not the full picture of change.
People are the other half of a system.
What stakeholders in a system believe, think, and do shape how a system functions. If materials are the hardware, then people are the software. If a farmer doesn’t believe regenerative techniques will benefit her farm, then she may not use the sustainable equipment available. People interact with the materials and with each other, making the system function.
New research shows this second half, the people side of a system, is not being fully considered when organisations design and implement sustainable solutions. Without this, solutions may fall short or fail to be adopted, delaying benefits and often adding costs to an organisation.
We need new tools to understand and engage the people within systems to create lasting change.
Noetic helps organisations become more sustainable and resilient by combining cutting-edge academic research and practical, real world needs in new tools to gain a full picture of the people within an organisation’s system.
Once we understand the pain points and opportunities holding back an organisation, we can co-design solutions with stakeholders and build effective implementation pathways.
Let us show you how.
