Living Systems for Thriving Groups

What do groups, projects and organisations need to work together effectively and sustainably?
One of the most fundamental things that makes the difference between a group thriving or falling apart is its living social systems. By “Living Systems” we mean the ongoing ways of handling things like making decisions, engaging with conflict, or organising support. These may be clearly agreed and spoken about (explicit), or just the way things happen (implicit). A Living System is 3 dimensional and dynamic - more than just policies or procedures. Agreeing good ways to handle stuff like decision making or conflict is one of the most useful things we have seen for supporting a group to fulfil its purpose, navigate power and look after its people.

One way to think about Living Systems:
People generally try to set up their beds/bedrooms before they get tired, and their kitchens before they get hungry, because we know that we’ll keep getting tired and hungry every day, and because it’s harder to set them up when we're already really tired or hungry. Knowing that we are going to be encountering some aspect of life - whether that’s sleep or decision making -, how do we set up the things we need for it in ways that work for whoever is involved, so that we’re ready when we need them?

This course:
We at Navigate have been working with individual groups to develop their systems and agreements for these areas, one at a time. Based off and inspired heavily by Dominic Barter's articulation of systems development work done in Brazil, this programme seeks to support more groups develop their living social systems to be what they want them to be, in line with their values and purpose. The course is designed to give you perspectives on systems, and specific options that you might want to adapt that have worked for other groups or organisations. It will also offer pathways to engage in the process of developing and agreeing the systems with everyone concerned.  

This course is a mix of old and new: recordings from a 2020 workshop series, plus new scripts and resources to help you get started!