Systems Change
Systems Change
To build a thriving and resilient region, we need to address the root causes of the complex problems that create persistent barriers to equity and progress.
Many issues—like housing insecurity, healthy food access, environmental change, and mental health challenges—remain entrenched, even after years of dedicated work by organizations and communities across Northwest Michigan. This pattern reflects a common approach that prioritizes managing the visible consequences of complex problems, rather than addressing the underlying conditions that create and sustain them.
Systems change offers a powerful approach for thinking and acting differently. By helping us see the interconnected factors that hold a problem in place, this approach supports collaboration, experimentation, and innovation to shift systems so they produce better outcomes.
For decades, charitable organizations have focused on helping individuals overcome the odds stacked against them. But what if we could change the odds themselves?
Our Approach
At Rotary Charities, we walk alongside changemakers working to shift systems for the better. We provide funding, coaching, learning experiences, and connections to support:
- Cross-sector collaboration
- Centering lived experience in decision-making
- Testing and scaling new ideas
- Continuous learning and adaptation
- What is a System?
A system is a set of interconnected elements that work together to produce a result—intentionally or not. Systems are all around us: in education, health care, housing, the environment, and more. Sometimes, the results they produce limit our collective ability to thrive.
Systems can be complex—characterized by adaptive, interconnected, emergent, and nonlinear qualities. These kinds of problems require collaborative strategies that support multiple stakeholders in learning, testing, and adjusting together over time.
"A system is a set of related components that work together in a particular environment to perform whatever functions are required to achieve the system's objective."
—Donella Meadows
- What is a Systems Change Approach?
A systems change approach is one way to address complex problems. It involves taking a holistic view of a challenge and working to shift the deeper structures that keep it in place—things like policies, practices, resource flows, relationships, power dynamics, and mental models.
This kind of change can only happen through deep collaboration among those working across sectors and those who have experienced the issue firsthand. By focusing on causes rather than consequences, changemakers can co-create solutions that are more just, effective, and enduring.
- How Do You Change a System?
The work of systems change is long-term and collaborative. No single organization can shift a system on its own. It requires a network of committed changemakers working together on new strategies that reach upstream and address the source of the problem.
While every systems change effort is different, we’ve found that four key elements often support meaningful progress:Convening Stakeholders – Bringing together diverse voices to build trust and alignment.
Exploring Upstream Causes – Understanding the root factors and dynamics that keep the problem in place.
Designing and Implementing Actions – Testing strategies that have the potential to shift the system.
Learning and Adapting – Continuously reflecting, evaluating, and adjusting based on what emerges. - What Does Systems Change Look Like?
In this video, 15 Northern Michigan changemakers share how adopting a shared systems change approach is creating real impact in our region.
What We Support
Our funding supports systems change efforts at multiple stages of readiness:
- Seed Grants for exploring root causes and building relationships
- Systems Change Accelerator Grants for collaborative efforts ready to take coordinated action
We also offer curated learning experiences, coaching, and peer support to help changemakers strengthen their systems practice.
Seed Grants
Funding: suggested maximum of $10,000
Purpose: Exploring root causes and building relationships
Systems Change Accelerator
Funding: Up To $150,000
Purpose: support for collaborative effores ready to take action
Learning Opportunities
Systems Change Community of Practice
Stories of Change: How a Systems Change Approach is Transforming a Region
From addressing housing instability to improving mental health systems, changemakers across the region are working together to shift the systems that shape our lives. Their stories demonstrate the power of collaboration, reflection, and long-term commitment to change.
Learn More
Explore resources to deepen your systems thinking and practice:
- Foundational Frameworks
- ABLe Change Process: Tools and Resources for Community Systems Change by Dr. Pennie Foster-Fishman andDr. Erin Watson
- Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows
- The Water of Systems Change by John Kania, Mark Kramer, and Peter Senge
- Tools & Practice Guides
- Facilitating Breakthrough by Adam Kahane
- Simple Habits for Complex Times by Jennifer Garvey Berger and Keith Johnston
- Systems Thinking Playbook by Linda Booth Sweeney
- Network & Collaboration
- Connect, Innovate, Scale Up by Peter Plastrik, Madeleine Taylor, and John Cleveland
- Connecting to Change the World by Peter Plastrik, Madeleine Taylor, and John Cleveland
- Impact Networks by David Ehrlichman
- Mindset & Leadership
- Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
- Leadership and the New Science by Margaret Wheatley
- Systems Thinking for Social Change by David Peter Stroh
- Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal
- Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath
- The Systems Work of Social Change by Cynthia Rayner and François Bonnici
- Walk Out Walk On by Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze
For even more resources, check out the References (pages 72 and 73) of Volume I of our publication Stories for Change: How a Systems Change Approach is Transforming a Region.