Innovations in Systems Thinking – 5 Things the World Can Learn From SOCAP15
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
The biggest challenges of our time do not require patchwork solutions, innovative smartphone apps, or miracle pills, instead they require systems-level innovations that can tackle the root cause of the world's most serious issues.
Take cancer as an example. To eliminate it has a health risk, we can't rely on a single miracle drug. Instead, we need a systems-level approach that works on prevention, treatment, and recovery programs.
Social and environmental challenges are no different.
The United Nations, with the release of its Sustainable Development Goals, has set audacious targets to reach by 2030, like eliminating poverty. This, like cancer, needs a systems-approach that doesn't just look to help people out of poverty, but needs to prevent people from entering it in the first place. To achieve this in the next 15 years, it will require creating and scaling policy, education, health, clean water, and financing initiatives — to name just a few.
The Challenge: System-level Solutions Are Hard to Design and Harder to Implement
To fix a problem at its root cause, you have to create change at all levels of society: individuals, communities, businesses, nonprofits, schools, and governments.
Every audience requires a different approach, and often times, segments within every audience also respond differently. This is because different audiences all have different measures of success, and often times they compete with each other.
Source: The Huffington Post (link opens in a new window)
- Categories
- Education, Environment, Health Care
