For Real Impact, Think Ecosystems, Not Silos

How to “win” a game with no end.

Hi y’all,

As an impact-driven leader, I’ve heard versions of “I won’t see that in my lifetime” throughout my entire career. When I was more junior, I appreciated it as a way to acknowledge that the systems-change work my colleagues and I had dedicated ourselves to was a complex, long game. It took me a few years to realize that it limited our work to a game– something that could be “won” and had an end.

But systems change has no end. It is ongoing, adaptive, and ever evolving.

Systems change is *ecosystemic*.

Society is an ecosystem– it is an interdependent group of systems forming a unified whole. And yet, so many of us working in social impact approach systems change as though our work is disconnected and siloed.

Audre Lorde was right, though; “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single issue-lives.”

All systems change work is intertwined. Though we may approach our work as separate, siloed disciplines, it’s all connected– child care to the workforce, climate change to public health, AI to education, equity and liberation to everything. (from No One Changes the World Alone)

Systems, By Definition

At Root + Bloom Strategies, a “system” means process + people.

There is the process, the written rules and standard practices that structure the system. The law. The employee handbook. The code of conduct.

And then there are the people, those who enforce, engage in, and experience the process at any given moment.

No social system exists without both. Therefore, no systemic change can succeed without addressing both process and people.

The challenge is, people– humans– are not static entities. We, like the nature we are a part of, are constantly growing, evolving, changing. Truly, the only constant is change. Which makes our current approach of trying to “win the game” of systems change doomed to fail, by definition.

There Is No One Answer

Now, let’s be real– that’s hella overwhelming. We rightly approach a massive project like creating impact in the societal ecosystem by breaking it down into smaller component parts. There is only so much any one leader, organization, even community can manage. And just like in a natural ecosystem, one small change can have a significant effect on everything else. Impact doesn’t have to be huge and flashy– just ask the dinosaurs about the asteroid.

Impact, however, is never isolated. It does not happen in a single silo. It is not and will never be one genius initiative, one static solution, one “silver bullet.” Many leaders working toward systems change operate as though we’re going to find THE Answer™. But there is no one answer. There are many and they will continue to evolve as the questions continue to change.

Real Impact Isn’t Static, It’s Dynamic

If you work in any type of systems change, “impact” is a word you hear all the time, but rarely define clearly. Like “collaboration,” impact has become a bit of a buzzword that can mean everything and nothing at all. Maybe there’s a data point or two attached to it, maybe a vision statement paints a hazy picture of it... but impact is very rarely understood as ongoing. Rather, it is a static end.

This makes demonstrating impact a common struggle among many systems change leaders. Often, it shows up as a dataset meant to validate an organization’s theory of change. It might look like a jumble of outputs and outcomes– how many students served? How many attendees participated? What percentage increase from pre-survey to post-survey? How many bills introduced? How much stronger employment rates? Sometimes impact is neatly packaged into a report that captures “key insights” and “best practices.”

At Root + Bloom Strategies, we define “impact” as an enduring shift in standard practice and lived experience. Impact is not about one snapshot, but rather a moving picture. For impact to be meaningful, it must be dynamic.

Impact (n): An enduring shift in standard practice and lived experience

This Game Has No End

If it is a game at all, systems change is much more infinite than finite. In The Infinite Game, Simon Sinek argues that business isn’t about “winning” but about sustaining healthy organizations.

What if systems change was less about winning a game and more about creating a healthy and sustainable ecosystem?

Again, there is no one answer. This game has no end. Instead, systems will endlessly evolve as society continues to change. Technological advancements will continue to emerge, political realities will continue to shift, nature itself will continue to bring factors we could not predict. As humans, we will do what we have always done– adapt.

If our systems are adaptive, our approach to impacting them must be too.

Okay, But How?

Cool, cool. So then how are impact-driven leaders actually supposed to change systems?

We practice bringing the components parts of the ecosystem together. We collaborate.

The world can change, but no one can change the world alone. Rather than working in silos to develop the genius initiative that will solve {insert social/systemic ill here}, we can come together on purpose, for a purpose.

Collaboration is adaptive, dynamic. It is a practice that expands a team’s capacity to get to a goal together. It brings together multiple perspectives to “see the whole elephant.” It focuses collective energy where it makes the biggest difference. It allows systems change leaders to play an infinite game on an ecosystemic scale. Together.

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Collaboration is the defining skill and strategy of our time. It allows us to move beyond winning individually to thriving collectively. It allows us to adapt to the ever-changing ecosystem of society. It makes real impact possible.

In future essays, I’ll share the collaboration framework I use with my clients. But even without the framework, impact-driven leaders can start collaborating for systems change by asking yourselves–

• How am I trying to “win” this game?

• What would my goal be if I accepted that this game has no end?

Let’s move from silos to ecosystems,

Nia