#LearningsAboutSystemsChange part 3
Systems change without money?
Recently one college invited me to listen to presentations of changemaker initiatives of their students and offer feedback.
Small groups of students aged 17 to 20 were invited to identify a problem of their concern, analyze it, develop a solution and implement it – all within one academic year, with just a few hours of teacher guidance per month and with zero budget for implementation.
“Really? Is it possible to bring about any meaningful change without money and experience?”
If this is a thought that crossed your mind now, let me share an observation I made when listening to one group of students that particularly stood out to me.
Those students focussed on the issue of water mismanagement in Portugal, where the volume of clean water used for irrigating golf courses equals 10% of all clean water used in Lisbon. Golf course managers are often not aware of the scale of the problem, don’t feel pressure to act from their customers, and are not aware of solutions.
Group's initial idea was one of direct service – to help one golf club develop a sustainability plan for water usage. However, they were not taken seriously.
Then the group realized that what actually is within their power is raising awareness of golf course managers: articulating the problem clearly, distilling good practice examples worldwide and organizing a webinar for these managers. And what could work even better is bringing together practitioners of sustainable golf courses from around the world and have them share their experiences with Portuguese colleagues.
Students did their homework well, mapped out these experts, reached out to them and, to students' surprise, most of them agreed! The webinar turned out to be a success – practitioners and renowned experts joined as participants and moderators, and … a network of sharing has been initiated.
Which lesson can one draw from this experience?
Even if I am a changemaker with little experience and no budget for my initiative, I might have other resources that would enable me to act on a systemic level.
In this case, students have had the analytical and time capacity to do research on the problem and map best practice and experts. It cost them nothing (apart from courage!) to write emails to renowned experts, and organizing some online meetings involved some hours of preparation.
- Helping the system's stakeholders better understand the problem,
- shortening the distance between these stakeholders
- and infusing the system with clear examples of good practice
are important systemic contributions available to changemakers even without much money in the pocket.
p.s. My big thanks for this experience goes to the students and my dear friend Ana Luísa Silva who teaches at Forward College and brings #changemaking and #systemsthinkings into her classroom!
President at Road Safety Institute (RSI Panos Mylonas)
3wHappy to be among the recipients! Very thankful to FIA for enabling us to take action towards driving change engaging the Authorities to strengthen and prioritize initiatives for the prevention of road crashes and the development of traffic safety culture...