Six Conditions of Systems Change

In a 2018 mongraph on the waters of system change, Kania, Kramer and Senge describe "six interdependent conditions that typically play significant roles in holding an environmental problem in place."  They note that this framework draws upon an extensive literature and is inspired by the Iceberg Model and Donella Meadow's Places to Intervene.  The concepts that some levels are visible and some invisible is retained, as well as, the notion that mental models or deeply held beliefs are key drivers in a system.

Kania, Kramer and Senge define the six conditions as follows:

Policies: Government, institutional and organizational rules, regulations, and priorities that guide the entity’s own and others’ actions.

Practices: Espoused activities of institutions, coalitions, networks, and other entities targeted to improving social and environmental progress. Also, within the entity, the procedures, guidelines, or informal shared habits that comprise their work.

Resource Flows: How money, people, knowledge, information, and other assets such as infrastructure are allocated and distributed.

Relationships & Connections: Quality of connections and communication occurring among actors in the system, especially among those with differing histories and viewpoints.

Power Dynamics: The distribution of decision-making power, authority, and both formal and informal influence among individuals and organizations.

Mental Models: Habits of thought—deeply held beliefs and assumptions and taken-for-granted ways of operating that influence how we think, what we do, and how we talk.