Last week I presented at the Government Economics Network conference that was focussing on our transition to a net zero country.
I formulated the seven points of guidance below for change agents wanting to nudge humans into doing more desirable things in the system .
Accept the uneconomic human mind. The drivers of human behaviour are numerous and complex. Mostly this leads to the intuitive / fast mind prevailing over the analytical / slow mind.
Respect the idea of agency. Agents have agency. They can act independently and make their own free choices, based on their own hypotheses about what will make them more successful – assumptions about why doing things should work.
Empathise with your person(s) of interest. Hear their voice, preferably first-hand, and bring it into your thinking and process.
Tap into relationships across the system. Relationships are the fuel for system level learning, growth and ultimately resilience.
Accept you aren’t in control. You can't, so don't seek to, change people's minds, change the system settings around them so they change themselves.
Focus on leverage points. "The places within a complex system (a corporation, an economy, a living body, a city, an ecosystem) where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything." Donella Meadows
Be open to an emergent strategy. Learn how to cope with the murky, dynamic, and unpredictable nature of this work.
I also reminded everyone to rethink their accepted methods of solving problems reiterated by this quote from the OECD:
"Changing the dynamics (i.e. transitioning) of a well-established and complex adaptive system requires not only a new way of examining problems, but also bold decision making that fundamentally challenges many organisation and public sector institutions mindsets and approaches. "Adapted from Systems Approaches to Public Sector Challenges:Working with Change’ OECD 2017
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