Alumni Eureka Khong: Ecological Design for Regenerative Communities

Eureka came to the UnSchool during our last Fellowship in beautiful Borneo, in the city of Kuching. A creative change-maker based in India, Eureka focuses on ecological design for regenerative communities. We caught up with her to hear more about the very inspiring work that she’s up to!

Can you give us an introduction to yourself and your work?

A few years ago, when I allowed myself time to disconnect from a conventional Architect’s career goals, I found myself gravitating toward socially responsible architecture and regenerative land practices. Since 2016 I’ve been part of Project Potential, a grassroot non-profit in Bihar, India. Here we believe in investing in rural India’s human capacity and encouraging informed solutions to emerge from within. Our role as a scaffolding is to support with knowledge, skills, attitudes, networks, and resources, and toward that goal, we are creating a space in brick and mortar to explore sustainable and regenerative living practices and be involved in creative and transformational experiences, free from judgment.

This space is called eArthshala - ‘shala’ in Hindi means a house and eArthshala is thus, incrementally evolving into a physical experience of our core principle ‘eArth’. Hidden in it are three elements we believe as critical to a nurturing society: the English ‘earth’, and the Hindi ‘arth’ (अर्थ), suggesting both, economy and meaning. In other words, it is a philosophy that seeks a regenerative earth, economy, and existence (way of life). My key contribution here is in envisionsing, bringing in collaborative partners, facilitating local construction upskilling and setting up day-to-day systems and processes to actualise that vision. 

No hour is the wrong hour to engage me in action and conversations on waste management solutions (albeit while understanding that recycling also perpetuates waste) and sanitation —  no matter how graphic the details or messy the situation!

What motivates you to do the work that you do?

My key motivating factors would be: intrinsic on-ground learnings, social relevance, and our team.

Having jumped into a project that requires us to scan all that’s around us locally and out there in the world, strip every jargon and distill information and ideas that we can prioritize and implement on the ground, means it’s an everyday LEARNING BONANZA. One day I’m looking into organizational systems, and another I’m looking into behaviour design tweaks to our waste segregation systems. One day it’s fine-tuning architectural design to suit climatic conditions, and another day is about making hands-on sundried adobe bricks. 

While my focus is on campus making (with an onsite skill-training aspect), the larger organization works across the development domain of youth leadership, community awareness, healthcare and humanitarian aid. Together we are working on an “ecosystem approach” toward development action in Bihar, where we foster effective collaboration between government, civil society and private entities.

In all this, the key factor that glues all the other factors together is a team culture of inclusivity, and the intentional space for each of us to evolve and nurture individual and collective potential. Each of us are here because we’ve, in some form or another, taken the agency to bring about change in our “sphere of influence” — and that’s infectious.

How did you find out about the UnSchool, and what motivated you to come?

It’s possible that I started to follow Leyla’s work and UnSchool subsequent to stumbling across her TED talk, “Paper beats plastic? How to rethink environmental folklore”. In 2015, the talk played a key role in shaping my personal convictions toward sustainability and in questioning the sustainability myths I believe in. 

I’ve been following the UnSchool since then, but it wasn’t until last year that I felt ready for the Fellowship experience. Last year, three years after we began working and building eArthshala from scratch, at one point I began to feel that some of the systems and processes we set out were beginning to generate results! I also felt that in a way, I had implemented a major part of my skills and knowledge, and was ready to soak in new mental models and tools and bring them back to our actions on ground. The UnSchool program sounded like the right booster shot I needed to learn sustainability design tools, with the oh-so-tempting benefit that it would be a much deserved “mental spa” at Borneo with others from our global tribe!

The Kuching Fellowship group

What was your experience at the UnSchool like?

While each day was power-packed with unexpected and memorable experiences, from the Zero Waste Shopping challenge and gorgeous communal meal prep, to the exhausting 24-hour design challenge, the day we traveled to the Matang Wildlife Reserve and the subsequent events to follow probably best describes the power of the UnSchool Experience.

The visit to the reserve was unexpected for all involved, including the facilitators -- somehow none of us expected to walk into a rehabilitation center in the rainforest and be greeted by majestic orangutans, gibbons and sun bears in caged enclosures. Unfortunately, they were safer here because the alternative was to be fighting for survival against poachers and conflicts with other orangutans -- who knew that the home range of a male orangutan in the forest is around 2500 hectares (that’s just two male orangutans in the whole city of Manhattan)! 

While we understood that they were also being taken care of by an extremely dedicated and informed team, it was hard to not very quickly feel emotionally drained. Seeing our energies by the end of the trail, the facilitators decided to not opt for the trek but instead chose some down-time by the stream.

As we laid back in the deep green water, feeling consumed by the busy surround sound of the forest and shreaky calls of the gibbon, I felt as though there was another deafening sound in my head -- perhaps that of cognitive dissonance in full action. Here I lay in this pristine waters under these dense foliage, exercising a freedom that should actually be for Peter and other orangutans --- but here I am, and there they are in their enclosures with their caretakers. The swim was many things at once: a bonding session between the fellows, a much-needed alone time for those who craved it, and an intense, intimate moment with planet Earth.

It was followed up with a delicious falafel picnic (prepared by the facilitators) -- imagine frying 200 (I assume) falafel first thing in the morning in a less-than-equipped service apartment. Then a no-holds-barred hour of Q&A with our guide Dominic and X-map reflection, each of which episodes deserve their own contemplative essays!

In any other experience, we would have probably called it a day. But not here! Back in the moving bus we played RIMBA, a truly fun card game designed by Nisha and Lymun (our super hosts) that encouraged us to learn about or at least come to recognise the unique Borneo forest animals. I was sitting at the front end of the bus, so I had the front row seat (literally) to witness how Leyla “reads the room” -- suddenly, she had an idea, followed by whispering-whisperings between the hosts and lots of excitement for the brewing secret. A long bus ride later (to literary on the other side of Kuching) and just past sunset, we arrived at Kampung Panchor Hot Spring! 

Our time in the hot spring, enjoying this natural bounty at the end of such an emotionally-gutting day, was one of my most visceral moments of feeling a sense of gratitude toward our Earth.

Once again, in any other experience, we would have probably called it a day. But not here! The hour-long bus ride to our dinner involved our gamification session! So here we were, after all that the day had to offer, including 4 hours of bus rides, enthusiastically drafting out our game... in the case of our group: an app-based game for elderly people addressing a social cause!

Gosh, I’m having a tough time not extending this answer to a 3-page blog post. So, to sum up, the Fellowship experience gets a lot of things right -- how to press EVERY emotional and mental button in a short and intense span of time and still leave us wanting more is uniquely UnSchool!

What was the main take away you had from coming to the UnSchool?

The sheer breadth of experiences was inspiring! The careful mentor selection, starting with Jacky’s humorous take on our city’s history contrasted with the quieter tone of Pangrok Sulap punk rock and wood carving artworks; Carolyn’s zero waste initiatives to Welyn’s insights on indigenous knowledge systems and fair trade; Chris Perry’s journey from a fashion professional to edible park designer to Steve’s provocative questions to change the way we see the world and the language we use to express ourselves. Then to tie it all together, the primary venue Borneo Lab in itself was bursting with creative out-of-the-box expression and not to mention EVERY meal with their unique twists.

The underlying trend in all of it... that no matter what field we choose to specialize or contribute toward, we can ALWAYS use it as a tool towards social and environmental justice. This would be my main takeaway.

Tell us more about your initiative(s), and how is it all going?

In the design and construction of eArthshala, there are some key choices we’ve made to minimise our carbon footprint and maximise our positive impact. For example, passive solar design with our climate and weather patterns in mind ensures we’ll have rooms that are naturally lit and ventilated. The use of primary building materials that are renewable such as earthen walls and bamboo for roofing members means that we’ve been able to minimise the use of high-embodied energy construction material like fired bricks, steel and concrete. Other elements of regenerative landscape and sustainable sanitation systems are also being worked out -- all this while prioritizing the skilling of local artisan in building services and construction techniques.

Our work flow took a hit due to the lockdowns imposed at the start of the pandemic, but now that the government is no longer imposing blanket lockdowns, we have been able to bring back our work traction. Certainly the threat of Covid-19 looms, but if all things pan out as per current plans, our first building, the Training Hall should be all set to host you(!) in 2022 --- just in time for what we call hope would be the post-pandemic life!

Other than that, I’m personally dabbling in a few other interests like land-regenerative practices and sustainability education.

How did the UnSchool help you start/evolve it?

The entire journey of UnSchool right from the crowdfunding campaign to the actual experience at Kuching has brought about a new level of confidence in me, that perhaps came about as I began to more formally present my ideas publicly. To add to that, the Fellowship experience in itself is a great example of the power of the tools of systems thinking, sustainability and disruptive design. 

My UnSchool cohort has been especially helpful when I needed to think through (or even calculate) some aspects of my ideation. I suppose a shout out here to some of their works would be apt! Hani’s (@wastelesskch) advocacy and sharing of her triumphs and struggles with zero waste journey is especially inspiring for its brutal honesty and articulation. Lymun and Nisha (@ecocentrictransitions) hosted our Fellowship and were instrumental in getting ALL the minute details together that made it so memorable! Raghu (@govindjr.raghu) is a serial social entrepreneur and will intrigue you with the great lengths that he can go to in following his curiosity.

As my ideas for my current and upcoming initiatives take shape, our Alumni network, tools and mental models from the UnSchool will continue to play a key role in guiding my process of research, inquiry, reflection and solutions.

How have you amplified this change you do in the world?

Shortly after the Fellowship I'd gotten the opportunity to a TEDx Youth Talk titled “Self Expression for Community Transformation'', where I shared my personal journey, doubts and our vision for eArthshala and Bihar.

On the other hand, however, the struggle to motivate immediate family and friends to compost is still very real!

How can people engage with, support, or follow your work?

Happy to make time for those that reach out. You can follow my work at:

Instagram_ Project Potential -- if interested in our social activities

Instagram_ Personal -- if interested in following my personal journey

Wordpress -- for my blog and work portfolio

Hope to cross paths with you soon!

New year, new you? On resolutions and getting over cognitive barriers to get shit done

By Leyla Acaroglu 

How many of us kick start a new year with a list of resolutions or actions, or even just ideas to make changes and finally get our shit together?

It's such a nice opportunity, the ticking over of a new year, and in this case a new decade, to take action on all the changes we have floating around at the back of our minds. Quite the job we hate —  start exercising, clean up the mess in the back room, change careers, volunteer more, start a new hobby, become a vegan, or in my case, every year for the last five years it has been, “Write the book.” Yes, it's hard to admit, but that has been my New Year's resolution for five solid years and, no, there is no completed book yet (although it's happening and I do have a new handbook coming out early this year! My 5th in 5 years, so I clearly have a complicated relationship with writing). 

Why do we all seem to have this innate desire to make changes when the year changes? It’s possibly because humans actually really enjoy a bit of healthy disruption, and the collective release of the old year allows for a really clear demarcation from the old to the new. The birth of a new year offers space for reflection and agenda setting that many other busy moments throughout the year just don’t allow us to catch. And of course, we also have all that ‘free time’ over the holidays to think and ponder and plan...

There is a growing body of research around how humans accept disruptions and adopt new behaviors at certain times in their lives. When I was researching sustainable lifestyle changes for the Anatomy of Action initiative, our collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme, I uncovered some fascinating things about social norms and personal behavior disruptions that may help you get a grip on your New Year's resolutions.

Understanding Social Norms

Social norms are the unwritten rules of what is/isn’t deemed ‘acceptable’ in any given society. They are pervasive and often implicated in influencing how we act, especially when around others. They are regulated by shaming those that don’t conform to them, and rewarding those that do.  In the context of everyday life, social norms subtly influence the decisions and choices we make each day. 

Norms, like so many other things in life, are in constant flux, so they require constant check-ins and recalibration to the evolving practice of everyday life. It would be exhausting if we had to consciously check in with all the appropriate social practices of our communities, so the human brain does a lot of this social norm calibration subconsciously by mirroring the behaviors of others around us. 

There are two prominent sociologists who have contributed to the understanding of how social norms influence us — Anthony Giddens’ Structuration Theory (1991) and Elizabeth Shove’s Social Practice Theory (2012). Both speak to the notion that change occurs when agents within a system are enabled to alter their everyday practices.

So, we don’t have our behaviors changed by others, but instead we are changed by the structural forces and interactions in our daily lives with the output of others actions. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation, meaning that it's hard to determine who is the first to make a shift in the status quo that then catches on and becomes a new social norm.

What we do know is that comparing our own practices against those of others affects what we do - or don't do.

There was a study in 2008 that demonstrated this; it looked at what would motivate people to opt into reusing their towel in a hotel. Goldstein and fellow researchers tried out a few approaches to socially normative messages to the inhabitants of a hotel room, ranging from, “The majority of guests reuse their towels,” to,  “The majority of guests in this room reuse their towels.”

The latter was way more successful in influencing people to opt to reuse their towel. Why? Because the desired behavior (of towel reuse) was seeded with a marker of social location-specific behavior to plant the normative expectation.

Basically because it said IN THIS ROOM, it made people even more aware of the social cue of reuse being specific to that space they were in, so the norm was set and people complied. The researchers go on to point out that, “A wide variety of research shows that the behavior of others in the social environment shapes individuals' interpretations of, and responses to, the situation.” 

It’s not new to us that we humans respond to cues in our environment, but how does this apply to something like a New Year's resolution? Do you think you would make a commitment to doing something differently if nobody else was doing it? I am one of those people who pride myself on being a bit different, so whilst I don’t write a list and share it with others as that would be way too obvious, I do totally make a mental mark at the turning of the new year to accomplish certain goals in that year. Knowing how social norms affect you and using these to your own motivational advantage could help you stick to your goals and make those positive changes contagious.

Overcoming Cognitive Dissonance 

The gap between what we say we will do and what we actually do is referred to as cognitive dissonance, a prevalent aspect when considering any form of behavioral economics. Research has found that simply caring about something does not mean that someone will alter behaviors towards it. Once we are made aware of a gap between what we think and what we do, we are more likely to change our opinions rather than our actions. 

The reality is that we often benefit from ignoring ourselves and behaving in other, more habitual ways, even if we are totally aligned with one value, we can still end up doing something completely opposite to it! Barkan and colleagues (2015) call this ‘ethical dissonance,’ which they say “arises from the inconsistency between the aspiration to uphold a moral self-image and the temptation to profit from unethical behavior.” When confronted with this, people often find ways to redefine their unethical behaviors as ‘non’-violations based on pre-violation justifications — like when you know that the cheap chocolate is unethically produced but you are able to rationalize purchasing it, just this once. 

Basically, we are all very good at messing with ourselves. So you need to find a way of reducing and identifying the dissonance so that you can stay on track with your goals.

Disrupting Everyday Habits 

The good news is that we can mess with ourselves and disrupt our own everyday habits by engaging with new experiences. Swapping from an existing one to a new option in an environment that reinforces the positive benefits, or when we are already experiencing dramatic changes, can all help us overcome inertia. A study by Fuji and colleagues from 2001 found that people were more likely to alter the way they commuted to work when they were forced by a temporary freeway closure to pick between a shorter train trip or larger drive. Many people who tried out the train then continued taking the train after the freeway reopened but they needed a disruption to force the new behavior to start.

This ‘habit discontinuity hypothesis’ states that habit-changing interventions are more likely to be effective when they are delivered during life changes (Verplanken and Roy, 2016), like when we move houses, go on vacation, or have a baby. Likewise, interventions that allow for habit swaps and new behaviors to be tried out are often more successful when the environment in which the habit is performed is altered (Carden & Wood 2018). So, as you start the new year, when we are more than likely on vacation mode, you have the space to start a different routine, this is the perfect time for your brain to offer you the commitment ceremony of New Year's resolutions to actions.

The challenge now is: how do you mess with your own mind enough to ensure you stick to them? 

When we developed the Anatomy of Action, our goal was to find a series of tangible, practical and achievable everyday lifestyle swaps that anyone anywhere could start to adopt to integrate sustainability into their everyday lives. We looked at many of the growing movements that are already happening, from zero waste living through to protein swapping.

There are 5 main lifestyle areas that we all engage in that we offer 3 swaps for each, and then there is also a further detailed list of actions you can take. In total, there are over 65 actions! So, if you are looking for some planet positive actions to start disrupting your life a little bit with, then head on over to the website. Check them out, and get started with your sustainable lifestyle hacks in 2020! 

References 

Gifford, R.D. and Chen, A.K., 2017. Why aren’t we taking action? Psychological barriers to climate-positive food choices. Climatic change, 140(2), pp.165-178.

McDonald, S., Oates, C.J., Thyne, M., Timmis, A.J. and Carlile, C., 2015. Flying in the face of environmental concern: why green consumers continue to fly. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(13-14), pp.1503-1528.

Barkan, R., Ayal, S. and Ariely, D., 2015. Ethical dissonance, justifications, and moral behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 6(DEC), pp.157-161.

Giddens, A., 1991. Structuration theory. Past, Present and Future. In: Bryant, C. and Jary, D.(eds.). Giddens’ Theory of Structuration. A Critical Appreciation. London: Routledge.

Goldstein, N.J., Cialdini, R.B. and Griskevicius, V., 2008. A room with a viewpoint: Using social norms to motivate environmental conservation in hotels. Journal of consumer Research, 35(3), pp.472-482. 

Shove, E., Pantzar, M. and Watson, M., 2012. The dynamics of social practice: Everyday life and how it changes. Sage.

Fujii, S., Gärling, T. and Kitamura, R., 2001. Changes in drivers’ perceptions and use of public transport during a freeway closure: Effects of temporary structural change on cooperation in a real-life social dilemma. Environment and Behavior, 33(6), pp.796-808.

Verplanken, &  Roy., 2016. Empowering interventions to promote sustainable lifestyles: Testing the habit discontinuity hypothesis in a field experiment. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 45, pp.127-134.

Carden, L. and Wood, W., 2018. Habit formation and change. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 20, pp.117-122.

Lally, P. and Gardner, B., 2013. Promoting habit formation. Health Psychology Review, 7(sup1), pp.S137-S158.

Unlocking the Power of Systems Thinking

By Leyla Acaroglu

I have long been a fan of showing how problem solving desperately needs systems thinking. If you are familiar with my work, you may have already seen the series I wrote on Systems Thinking, but let me share the personal experience in how I came to uncover the power of thinking in systems,  the insights that I gleaned from seeing the world through a series of interconnected systems at play, and some reflections on how this has helped me make more positive change through my creative work. 

I first encountered systems thinking as a practice around 8 years ago just as I started my PhD, and it completely blew my mind. I was going a bit mad at the time, as researching a PhD tends to result in some strange deep dives into all sorts of tangential aspects of your professional practice. At that time, I was exploring many of the adjacent fields to my actual area of study — sustainable design. This could otherwise be called procrastination, but I like to call it productive distraction. Days would start with looking into some more sustainable material processes and then I would end up looking into fractals, Newtonian physics, reductionisum, Lakoff’s work on metaphors... and then somehow in one of these Internet binges, I ended up in the world of systems and the fascinating transition from the mechanical worldview (thanks in part to Newton) through to the evolution of biology as a field of science which helped to form the foundations of understanding the interconnected systems that make life possible, which in turn helped to form the field of systems dynamics.

I then realized just how mechanistic my own thinking was, and in turn how this dominate worldview, that the world operates like a well-oiled machine, was supporting many of the reductive and damaging practices that sustainability was trying to resolve. So doing something about that became a new priority, and still is to this day.

Everything is interconnected

I remember spending one particular weekend locked in my apartment, watching every single documentary I could find about fractals, self-similarity, and the science of interconnectedness and basically nerding out on the relationships between everything. I found this beautiful introduction by Kauffman, and it was like a Disney movie in my mind where all the pieces of a puzzle magically came together in a Gestalt-esque moment of interconnectedness. I had been existentially  grappling with how to rationalize the randomness of so many of the problems/issues that I was wanting to be apart of changing, and then it all just slotted into a place as I started to see that everything as part of interconnected, interdependent systems, and that we are all affected by, and in turn, influencing them. 

To say my brain fell in love is an understatement. 

Hungry for more, I went on a knowledge scavenger hunt finding Russell Ackoff’s videos on YouTube (I consider him the best speaker on systems thinking. Ever.) and reading Peter Senge, Donella Meadows, and anyone else who had written on the topic in the last 25 years (quick side note, biologist von Bertalanffy, is credited as coming up with general systems theory, however did not uncover his work much later on).

All this cemented the realization that everything was interconnected and that in order to leverage creativity while working in sustainability — actually, in order to do just about anything — one needs to know how to see, identify, and think in systems. It also made me acutely aware of the diversity of explanations and approaches to systems thinking. Some are super obtuse and hard to penetrate, leaning more towards the engineering side of things, whereas other theorists are more lenient on their readers, prioritizing clarity rather than complexity (even though complexity is a critical part of systems thinking!). Take Meadows, for example — a fantastic systems thinker, but the entire first chapter of her book focuses on bathtubs as an analogy for systems dynamics. It might just be me, but it really did take some time for my brain to get what she was saying! And now? Well I can’t get in a tub without thinking about stocks and flows!

So started my love affair with this practice and my desire to figure out how to bring it into the design world. I developed a class for the university I was teaching at called ‘Systems Thinking for Designers’, and my students and I looked at how systems thinking could positively impact the design process.

Then, through my PhD, I began exploring nodal transfers as a theory of change and overlaying this new holistic worldview with my training as a sociologist. Years earlier, I had started to work in the extrapolated version of life cycle assessment, life cycle thinking, so adding the systems element to the understanding of how things impact each other in the linear supply chain was really empowering. Suddenly, the everyday impacts of how material flows were intersecting with the cultural layers of social interactions, the power plays, and the systems dynamics all become more accessible as the transition to focusing on relationships and non-obvious elements in a system become more prominent for me. I really could see how the multi-layers of social, industrial, and ecological activities intersect, impact, and, ultimately, change one another.  

Fast forward a few years, I had finished my PhD (thank gosh) and founded the UnSchool of Disruptive Design in NYC. I now had the big challenge of distilling all these years of research,  into engaging, shareable, and practical tools that would support others in picking up the systems mindset. I started to develop all sorts of systems mapping activities for workshops and refined the ones we now share — cluster mapping and the adapted interconnected circles maps. I advanced my life cycle thinking activities, as well as added X-maps into the mix,  and now we have a suite of tools at UnSchool Online that thousands of people around the world use to help them learn to love a problem, see the relationships before trying to solve said problem, and identify the areas where they can intervene within their agency and resources.

For me though, the most powerful thing is the moment when your brain just starts to see systems rather than the obvious things that we are trained to see. Sounds cheesy but it is really a superpower that anyone can access with a bit of training and overcoming the reductive mindsets that we were all taught in our linear education systems.

In order to overcome the global issues we are challenged with,  we need to change the linear, reductionist, status quo abiding thinking that reinforces breaking the world down into manageable chunks that can be controlled, where issues are attempted to be dealt with in isolation. What we need is to shift from a linear and reductionist dominant mindset to dynamic circular systems thinking. 

Why Systems Thinking is So Powerful?

Right now, there is no shortage of big complex messy social, political, and environmental problems that need to be addressed, from climate change to the rise in racism, homelessness, child exploitation, global politics and climate change. Taking a systems approach allows for a dynamic and intimate understanding of the elements and agents at play within the problem arena, enabling anyone to identify opportunities for intervention.

These tools are critical to overcoming the reductive mindset we were all taught in school — a mindset that teaches us to break the world down into individual and manageable parts, rather than see the complex, interconnected whole. But here’s the thing: problems never exist in isolation, they are always surrounded by other problems. The more you can comprehend the granulation and context of a problem, the greater your chances are of finding a truly effective solution that is within your capacity to enact. Problems are just unaddressed opportunities waiting for a creative mind/s to tackle them. 

The good news is that undoing linear and rigid thinking is pretty easy because, thankfully, humans naturally have a curious and intuitive understanding of complex, dynamic, and interconnected systems that make up the world around us. So, it’s really not that hard to rewire the thinking codes from linear to expanded, from 1-dimensional to 3-dimensional thinking. It’s one of the reasons I developed the Disruptive Design Method, which is a three-part approach to learning to love problems and dive under the obvious to explore the dynamics of an issue before attempting to build a solution to address it. 

The three stages of the DDM are Mining, Landscaping and Building

Leadership and Systems Thinking 

Without a doubt, the best leaders and problem solvers are systems thinkers, as they are naturally seeking out how parts fit within a complex whole and looking for the interconnectedness of issues and elements within a system. Understanding that the health of a system is defined by its diversity means that we avoid designing homogeneous systems, and instead we see flourishing complex robust systems. Furthermore, leaders who possess a systems mindset are more flexible and divergent in their solutionizing around issues that they face; they embrace curiosity and ask questions before trying to provide answers. As a result, outcomes are less likely to lead to unintended consequences or transference the issue to somewhere else in the system (shifting the burden). When solutions are systemic in nature they address the root cause instead of the obvious symptoms of a problem set. Critically, they know that the smallest part of the system has the power to make the most change, the challenge is finding that sweet intervention spot. 

In short, systems thinking helps unlock creativity and provide a fertile breeding ground for completely flipping your mind upside down and inside out, in the best possible way. Embracing this systems approach will help you evolve problems into effective, sustainable solutions and empower your agency to affect positive change.  

Future Thinking

I truly believe that thinking in systems  is the one core skill needed for being a leader in this next century. There is a strong  relationship between the reductive linear economy that is causing so much of the ecological and social exploitation and the reductive thinking that currently dominate our companies and governments. I see the failures of GDP and the non-inclusion of environmental services in our economic system. I can see how recycling validates waste, and that laying blame outside of our jurisdictions helps us all avoid making change. 

No matter how big the problem, the complex problem-loving mindset that systems thinking has given me is like a secret weapon of hope and possibility against all the negativity and merchants of doom that increasingly dominate the media landscape. When there is no blame, there is so much space for exploration, curiosity, and creativity. Personally, I think one of our biggest challenges of our time is the collective hope deficit, and embracing systems thinking helps to overcome that.  

The tools included in the Disruptive Design Method help me rise above the despair (right after I have had a good cathartic complaint session first), but the possibility for change is just as real as the catastrophic predictions, because everything is interconnected, the future is undefined, and the possibilities for creative change are endless —  if you just know how to see, value, and work within the systems that sustain us all. 

My hope for the future is that we, as societies, start to embrace more complex understanding of the world we have the pleasure of living in, that we see systems instead of silos, and adopt changes to education universally that teach the tools for the future, not the past and that we find ways of being a regenerative force on this beautiful magical planet we all share.

I’ll leave you with 6 insights that I have gleaned from embracing a systems mindset that hopefully will pique your curiosity and help you to fall in love with systems thinking like I did: 

1. Everything is interconnected. There is no blame because everything is connected to everything else

2. Today’s problems are often a result of yesterday’s solutions

3. You can’t solve a problem with the same thinking that caused it

4. Easy solutions can lead to negative impacts elsewhere

5. The easy way out often leads back in 

6. Systems are dynamic and constantly changing, and therefore we can all change them too!

---——

Where to get started? I have written a short 11 Key Principles of Systems Thinking. You can also take our Systems Thinking course online and then continue to leverage that knowledge in learning to design systems interventions in this course.

You can also explore the Circular Classroom, which is a free, multilingual educational resource accessible to anyone but designed specifically for students and teachers alike to integrate circular thinking into high school and upper secondary classrooms, all packaged up in a fun, beautiful format. It offers the opportunity to think differently about how we design products, how the economy works, how we meet our needs as humans, and how to support the development of more creative professional roles that help to design a future that is about social, economic, and environmental benefits — and of course, this all begins with a systems mindset. 

Apply to join our 7-day adventure into systems thinking, sustainability and design as tools for activating positive change with our fellowship program happening this November in Kuching, Malaysia. 

One Person Can't Save the World, but Everyone Can Change It

By Leyla Acaroglu

Our lives are made up of actions that come about as a result of choices that we often make based on the available information we have on hand.

So when someone sees a tsunami of problems presented to them day in day out by the mainstream and now social media, it's easy to assume that these issues are disconnected to us, that poverty or environmental problems are the outcome of poor policy decisions, or even someone else's bad choices.

From a young age we are taught cause and effect; we intuitively know that every choice has ramifications. If you turn on a tap to get water, it only flows because there is an entire system that has been set up to enable it to do so. This is made painfully obvious when, for whatever reason, the water doesn't flow. Say you forget to pay your water bill, or a pipe bursts due to traffic work somewhere down the street, and suddenly you are confronted with a system impact that is an immediate loss of something that you are used to being always available to you. There are actions you can take to remedy this situation, like calling the water company or paying your bill if you have the means to do so. But, when it comes to bigger issues outside of your immediate control, the actions an individual can take to remedy the situation are less obvious and often far from the mind's ability to contribute constructively — so it chooses to avoid the issue instead.

We live on a planet that is intrinsically interconnected; we breathe in the byproduct of photosynthesis, which in turn oxygenates our blood and allows us to breathe out carbon to contribute to the cycle continuing. Each one of us, no matter how big or small our sphere of influence is, has an impact on the world around us. Everything we use, say, do — it all has the potential to unintentionally cause a negative impact or intentionally have a positive one, and that is why being equipped with the tools for making systems change is so fundamental in overcoming the reductive avoidance that so many people opt into.

Know it or not, our lives are marked by change — changes that we can’t avoid.

For example, age: each birthday, the age we define ourselves by goes up by one.

• Hair: it grows, goes gray, is lost, and in some cases, grows in very odd places.

• Weather: it gets colder, hotter, and even more so nowadays, it's getting weirder.

• Life aspirations: if you followed the dreams of your five year old self, you may be a miniature dragon doctor now.  

• Opinions: every other day they should change.

• Days: like seven times a week they change.

• Lovers: insert your time frame here _____, but what we love changes over time as we grow and evolve as humans.

Change is the one constant in life (thanks Heraclitus for this great quote). We are all changing constantly, and the world we interact day in day out, changes us.

It’s less often that you are saving things. Like maybe you saved a baby from a burning building in your dreams (or in real life if you are a firefighter perhaps?), or you may have recently saved a breakable item from smashing on the floor. You may even be one of those people who is good at saving money. But changing is way more common than saving, so let's get this straight. YOU, yes you, you change the world every single day that you are alive, and in turn, the world changes you. You are in an interdependent relationship with a bunch of systems and hidden processes that you may not have any idea about, and together, we are going to uncover what they are, how they work, and why you can help change them by activating your creative capacity and leadership so that you can contribute to helping the world works better for all of us.

The saying “change is hard” is often used as an excuse for not taking action or deflecting responsibility to other parts of the system. But everything worth doing requires work, and if the systems changes needed were easy, then they would have been done already. Easy solutions to complex problems often lead right back into the problem —  that's one of the basic tenets of a systems mindset, and one of the core things we teach at the UnSchool.

You can't make change unless you know what needs to be changed. Just like you don't know what you don't know until you discover that you don't know it!

I started the UnSchool to help people like you. It’s all about providing tools to help redesign the world through creative systems change. I know that it's not possible for any one person to suddenly save the entire world, and nor should be the responsibility for anyone to do so, but it is certainly the case that every single person can change it. In fact, the world does not need ‘saving’ — it is us humans that need a salvation, given the hyper-consumption fueled constant-growth mindset that has permeated modern societies at the expense of the systems that sustain us and the values that maintain our species’ success!

The power to make change lies in our personal ability to see our own agency and opportunity for for creative leadership and to then make intentional choices about how we will activate the influence we organically have on the world around us, while working on enhancing this to a point where we can actively make more positive systems change.  

One of the reasons I started the UnSchool almost five years ago, was to connect and encourage a global community of rebellious creatives willing to activate their agency for sustainable and regenerative future. It’s for all the people who are deeply passionate about contributing to changing the way we humans treat and interact with the world, so that we offer back more then we take.

All the tools and resources that I create are intended to support people agentizing themselves to be positively disruptive change-makers, rather than passive observers, participants, or even complainers of the status quo.

Developing healthy critical thinking, reflexivity, a systems mindset, and a problem-loving attitude are all fundamentals to increasing your capacity to take action and to contribute to needed systems change. To be able to see the relationships between things that occur provides the foundations for moving from blame to understanding, which in turn supports the development of a problem-loving mindset.

Over the last 15 years of working in sustainability and cultural change, I have met way too many people who say that they are trying to solve problems when, in fact, they are reinforcing them by not choosing to understand the relationships and hidden aspects that make them exist to begin with. This reductive linear thinking plagues decision making and is one of the fundamental reasons that problem solving needs systems thinking.

I made a choice to dedicate my career to figuring out how to contribute to effective positive change and how to overcome the reductive mindset that disempowers and disables, while being a problem lover, systems explorer, and supporter of regenerative and sustainable change. To further support changemakers developing their own learning journeys and discoveries. That’s why I am so proud and excited to share the new certification systems (UnSchool style) that we have developed. The three advanced learning UnSchool systems are self-directed learning journeys into activating positive change, as a Practitioner, UnMasters or Educator.

Of course you don't need to come to the UnSchool to make change! But if you want the support and want to become more agentized around creative leadership, systems, sustainability, and design, then we have short or long-form classes for you to help change and not save the beautiful planet we all share!