What problems show up in your system?

We’ve found that the best way to learn these concepts is to apply them to a personal example. So to start, we’d like you to choose a system that you want to change. We’ll keep coming back to this system as an example that you can explore in each section of our course.

• What is the system, organization, agency or community group you are going to explore in this bootcamp?
• What problems are showing up in this system that prevent everyone from having a fair shot at wellbeing?
• What stories do you tell about people that shape the culture, policies and practices of your system? Do you notice any assumptions that are being made? For example, think back to the last video, where an assumption like “People in poverty can’t manage money” resulted in a policy full of rules and restrictions about how cash benefits could be spent.
• Could there be any alternative explanations for these stories or assumptions? For example, think back to the last video, where a person shifted their viewpoint from “I can’t believe she’s buying steaks with food stamps!” to “She must be celebrating a special occasion! I do that too.”
• How might your system change if these underlying assumptions or stories shifted?