The Sensitizing Principle

A social system map can instigate lot’s of great actions. A social system map can become a really valuable tool.

But to me, a social system map’s deepest purpose is to sensitize a group of people to the paradigm it is built upon. To me, it’s more about the collective paradigm shift than it is about the visible outcome.

It’s about not just generating actions, but increasing the capacity for WISE ACTIONS. Actions built upon an ever-deepening insight into interconnectedness, interdependence, complexity, systems, flow, and the conditions necessary for adaptiveness and resilience. And that ever-deepening insight applied to their own context – not simply in the abstract. And built upon with increasing insight over time.

Our core role is to draw out the sensitization aspects of the project. It’s so much less about the product and more about the process, and the process must always focus on sensitizing our networks to this new way of thinking and understanding and taking action.