School of System Change

We know that growing a global community of change agents is our best chance to accelerate a transition to a sustainable future. Want to know more?

Stories of Change

How does change happen?-

ABOUT THE STORIES OF CHANGE

The School of System Change collaborated with foundations, academics, creatives and others to create the Stories of Change, a series of videos and tools for designing and delivering system change practices. In our development process for each story, we engaged a community of partners to transform these stories of change into multimedia videos and facilitated learning experiences.

The aim of this project is to create accessible resources to co-learn and help change agents to design more systemic strategies/action. This project supports system change facilitators to introduce systemic frameworks using stories of change in history to a wider audience.

We currently have developed three videos and their accompanying facilitation packs about a story of change as seen through a systemic framework. Each accompanying facilitation pack guides systems change facilitators how to prepare and facilitate group discussion using the Stories and Change and find more information about the story and framework. We are in the process of developing more Stories of Change with our funding partners.

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Understand change to create change

-01 MULTI-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE + THE BIRTH OF ROCK N ROLL

Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) explains how transitions manifest through interactions between different levels of societal systems. We can use the MLP for systemic diagnosis--such as diagnosing complex challenges within societal systems such as mobility, housing or food. This Stories of Change video focuses on the seemingly sudden rise of Rock ‘n’ Roll in the 1950s, and our resources discuss how the MLP can help us understand the story behind this radical shift in the American music industry.

Additional resources

MULTI-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE Facilitator's Pack

Provide feedback on the Facilitator's Pack

MULTI-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE Webinar Recording

MULTI-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE Insights & Questions from 29 Sept 2020 Webinar

02 ICEBERG MODEL + THE RISE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

The Iceberg Model, typically used in systems diagnosis, can help us explore blindspots, question assumptions and challenge mental models underneath pivotal events, such as Rosa Park's arrest in 1955 in the Civil Rights Movement. Only 10% of an Iceberg’s total mass can be seen above water—the remaining 90% exists below the waterline. As a society, the majority see and respond to events, happening at the tip of the iceberg.

Additional resources

ICEBERG MODEL Facilitator's Pack

Provide feedback on the Facilitator's Pack

ICEBERG MODEL Webinar Recording

ICEBERG MODEL Insights & Questions from 13 Oct 2020 Webinar

03 LEVELS OF PARADIGM FRAMEWORK + THE REGENERATION OF RESILIENT COMMUNITIES IN MEXICO CITY

Regeneration, as a mindset, is focused on building the capacity and capability in people, communities, and other natural systems to restore, renew or revitalize. How can regenerative design help us understand the whole systems to shift toward resilient and equitable systems that integrate nature?

Additional resources

LEVELS OF PARADIGM FRAMEWORK Facilitator's Pack

LEVELS OF PARADIGM FRAMEWORK Webinar Recording

LEVELS OF PARADIGM FRAMEWORK Insights & Questions from 27 Oct 2020 Webinar

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Support the Stories of Change

We want to take the Stories of Change to the next level! We are developing more Stories of Change and a living-learning platform that is open-source and to facilitate systems change practice and make it fun! If you would like to learn how you can support our on-going work, please contact Laura Winn at [email protected].

ABOUT THE SCHOOL OF SYSTEM CHANGE

We are equipping people with the capabilities to lead system change initiatives addressing complex sustainability challenges. The School offers flexible access to the best learning experiences, tools, case studies from the field, while growing the community of practice.

More information about the School’s offering can be found under its Course page.

Learn more about the School

Latest

Basecamp Europe 2022

Our core introductory programme to system change practice, kicking off in May 2022. Applications are now open to changemakers from all sectors who are looking to design more effective strategies for complex challenges, collaborations and create impactful systemic change . Sessions are run from the UK but we welcome participation from anywhere with a compatible timezone.
Tanya Grueneberger

Digital & PR Executive
Can Current ESG Investments Address the Climate Crisis?

While environmental, social and governance (ESG) integration in Asia was still in its relative infancy two years ago, the Covid-19 pandemic has increased ESG investments. The example of the protein system shows that while the push for ESG metrics is a step in the right direction, it falls short of enabling the deep transformations needed to build a just and resilient future.
Tackling Microfibres at Source

Tackling Microfibres at Source offers textile manufacturers, brands and fashion retailers an opportunity to design intervention strategies. Learnings and insights from this project will be shared across the fashion industry pre-competitively in order to accelerate change.

The Five Capitals - a framework for sustainability

The Five Capitals Model provides a basis for understanding sustainability in terms of the economic concept of wealth creation or ‘capital’. Any organisation will use five types of capital to deliver its products or services. A sustainable organisation will maintain and where possible enhance these stocks of capital assets, rather than deplete or degrade them.
Reinventing the way the world works.

Forum for the Future is a leading international sustainability non-profit. We specialise in addressing critical global challenges by catalysing change in key systems, from food to apparel, energy to shipping. We do this by convening transformational collaborations to drive change, by partnering with organisations to help them lead by example, and by building a global community of pioneers and change makers.
Jobs

We are a growing organisation and we are regularly on the look out for new recruits to join our teams around the world.
Sustainability and system change

Climate change, malnutrition, inequality, poverty, ecological degradation. The global challenges we face are so urgent and tricky that we need a solution to match their scale and complexity. This is where system change comes in. We use systems thinking to understand the web of interrelations that create complex problems, anticipate unintended consequences, and identify how and where to take action to meet the SDG goals.
Become a system change agent

Learn more about upcoming system change programmes and express your interest.
What is Net Positive?

We reinvent strategies for a 1.5°C world. Our Net Positive approach helps business put back more into society and environment than it takes out. Unilever’s pioneering commitment to eliminate fossil fuels from its operations and directly support the generation of more renewable energy than they consume was driven behind the scenes by Forum.
Trailblazing sustainability strategies

Leadership in the 2020s is about your organisation’s ability to positively influence its operating context. We help you to understand the opportunities, and then how to unlock them.
Cotton 2040

Cotton 2040 aims to create a resilient cotton industry in an increasingly climate-disrupted world by bringing together stakeholders across the value chain.
Growing our Future

Working together to accelerate the transition to regenerative agriculture in the United States.
Protein Challenge 2040

The Protein Challenge 2040 is the first global coalition of its kind, aiming to tackle the question: How do we provide up to 10 billion people with enough protein in a way that is healthy, affordable and good for the planet?