by Jamie Gamble, Penny Hagen,\u00a0Kate McKegg and Sue West.<\/p>\n
This blog is the first post within\u00a0the Innovate for Impact blog series. <\/a>“Risk\u00a0is not destiny”\u00a0discusses why we need to radically \u2018change our thinking and operating\u2019 if we are to address the complex issues facing children and families<\/em>. <\/strong><\/p>\n We have known for a long time, quite a bit about the factors that lead to negative outcomes for our vulnerable populations, such as children. This is not the challenge we are facing. The challenge ahead of us is what we should do about it.<\/p>\n Communities have a plethora of programmes and services and the last thing they need is a new program or service. Despite the investment and effort we are making, we\u2019re not making much headway at a population level.<\/p>\n In societies of abundance, where wealth generation has been spectacular in recent decades, the health and wellbeing of our children is worsening. Change, disruption, and uncertainty are frequent in society \u2013 we\u2019re seeing a kind of social climate change unfold before our very eyes. And the ability for our communities to adapt and respond in the face of this uncertainty is not even.<\/p>\n The problems we now face are \u2018wicked.\u2019 These highly entangled messes involve many diverse stakeholders, perspectives and values. As a result, there is very little certainty about the way forward. We cannot predict the results of our actions in this complexity, we can only learn our way through them.<\/p>\n Amidst this complexity, we simply cannot continue using approaches that used to work for us. Business as usual is no longer working for us. Our old ways of thinking and working are grounded in assumptions about change that no longer hold.<\/p>\n Our traditional planning and decision-making models mostly assume static forms of change, and they have a linear logic that works when we have an agreement about what the problem is, and certainty about what the solutions might be. But in complex change, these assumptions and models don\u2019t serve us well.<\/p>\n Top down, expert models of planning and execution are not well suited to managing and operating when responding to complex issues. \u201cWe need to move away from diagnosing and treating to listening and responding.\u201d 2<\/sup><\/p>\n If we\u2019re serious about being able to create transformative change, we have to transform ourselves; transform our ways of thinking, acting and relating. We have to see our communities as collaborators, and co-designers, authentic partners and decision makers in creating change.<\/p>\n In complex change we have to be creative and passionate if we are to be truly innovative \u2013 and it is imperative that we shed the boundaries in our minds that keep us snapping back to old ways of thinking and operating. \u00a0Shifting power is imperative if we are to address equity in meaningful and authentic ways.<\/p>\n This kind of shift\u00a0is going to challenge all parts of current system. This disruption and shift may be welcome in principle but not always in practice when the changes start to be required.<\/strong><\/p>\n This blog post is part of a series identifying shifts the co-authors believe are emerging and important to community service and systems change. Links to the other posts (as they published) are below.<\/p>\nThe challenges ahead of us<\/h3>\n
Business as usual is no longer working for us<\/h3>\n
Transformative change<\/h3>\n
Innovate for Impact blog series<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n