This post is written by Shaheen Warren, Programme Manager at the Centre for Public Impact.

  • The problem: The challenges that public servants face today are more complex than they’ve ever been.

  • Why it matters: If we want to tackle the complex global challenges that our governments must face - whether public health, climate change, or inequality - we need to work in different ways and adopt new forms of leadership.

  • The solution: Systems convening - a form of leadership that brings people together across different boundaries. In doing so, systems convening enables the social learning and collaboration that is fundamental to developing the solutions to our greatest challenges.

Covid-19 has represented the greatest public health challenge of a generation. Yet, this is just one of a number of complex global challenges that our governments must face: an expansive list that also includes climate change, growing inequality, and many others.

This raises an important question. What leadership and skills are required of public servants when we are dealing with the greatest complexity encountered by a generation? Faced with such complexity, we need to be able to work in different ways and to collaborate across boundaries, organisations and with all key stakeholders.

Say hello to systems convening

This is where systems convening comes in. Put simply, systems convening is a form of leadership that enables learning across complex landscapes.

The people who do this work, systems conveners, exist in all successful partnerships. They are able to bring people together across different practices, organisations, goals, and cultures. They enable conversation and learning across boundaries and connect people across silos, seeking to engage diverse perspectives, which is precisely what is needed to make a difference. As a form of cross-boundary leadership, systems convening is an approach well suited to the most complex of challenges, with the potential to help all institutions thrive in the 21st century.

Recognising the possibilities of this, the Centre for Public Impact, Lankelly Chase and the RSA partnered with social learning pioneers Beverly and Etienne Wenger-Trayner to develop a book about this approach, Systems Convening: A crucial form of leadership for the 21st century. This research captures interviews with 40 systems conveners from around the world and illustrates the work of systems convening in practice.

Systems convening is an approach that can be applied to a number of different contexts but is particularly well suited to the complex social challenges that governments deal with, day in and day out. While some systems conveners are tackling local issues, others act globally. Today, systems conveners are working on diverse topics which range from tribal conflict resolution in Nigeria to systems transformation in the UK’s National Health Service.

So, what are the key qualities required for those seeking to adopt a systems convening approach?

1. Humble leadership

Social change does not rest on individuals or top-down approaches and systems conveners eschew this leadership style. Instead, they are humble leaders who recognise the need to convene a wide range of voices from across different levels and organisations, because it is often those closest to the issue that best understand it, and are therefore best placed to develop the strategies for change. As such, they redefine traditional leadership by elevating a collective approach.

2. Collaboration

Systems convening is all about bringing people together to learn across different boundaries and co-create solutions. This often requires creating and facilitating new social spaces for conversation between people who don’t normally interact with one another. As such, the ability to collaborate and foster environments that encourage cooperation are vital.

3. Relationship building and sharing power

Systems conveners need to be able to develop relationships, in order to build and leverage the networks through which they bring people together to collaborate. Relationship building is, therefore, a crucial skill that is required.

The role of the systems convener is important therefore because they are in a unique position to help facilitate this sharing of power. They can convene diversely and inclusively to engage people across organisations, communities and other landscapes as needed. Their example demonstrates how power can be shared inclusively, in a way that is most likely to result in strategies for change that are both effective and long-lasting.

4. Legitimacy

To be effective, systems conveners also need to be convincing to different people across different boundaries and different levels of seniority. In short, they need to have legitimacy. However, the ability of systems conveners to wield influence and be listened to is not guaranteed by their position. This means that systems conveners must be able to earn and command their legitimacy through authenticity, transparency, trust and relationships.

5. Embrace complexity

Many of the challenges we face in society are complex in nature, involving many actors, interacting in different ways, which are often interconnected and interdependent. Systems conveners need to be able to see the system as a whole and embrace the world in all its complexity. When working to make a difference and enact real social change, being aware of the interconnectedness of issues is necessary to move things forward.

6. Continuous learning

Social learning is a key element of the systems convening approach and systems conveners must be able to create the conditions for continuous learning. In practice, this means they need to be able to identify opportunities for new learning spaces and partnerships that can bring people together on a joint learning journey.

Why it’s important

Public servants need a refreshed toolkit to effectively tackle the increasingly complex problems we face around the world. Systems convening lays out those characteristics that are needed and is an important contribution to a new leadership skill set that is fit for the challenges of the 21st century.

Working with complexity requires rigour and flexibility, moving forward in the right direction while working with emergence, uncertainty and adaptation. Complex changes require both systems convening and traditional programme management approaches to work together, each bringing valuable, complementary contributions. To illustrate how these two sets of practices can work together, we’ve listed some complementary activities in the table below.

In a world that is increasingly globalised and fragmented, which is only just beginning to emerge from a global pandemic, the role of systems conveners is more important now than ever. Their cross-boundary leadership offers a way forward for public servants. The more we can foster this crucial form of leadership, the better we can work together to imagine solutions that truly respond to the century’s biggest problems.

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