The Planning Lady

Chapter seven of Multisolving by Elizabeth Sawin acknowledges the fact that systems are complex and the behavior of complex systems often leads to people giving up any efforts to try to assert influence. The systems stance is discussed which is comprised of a series of elements:

• Develop a systems ethic
• Prioritize learning
• Simulate scenarios
• Build your tolerance for uncertainty
• Play with the timescale
• Play with spatial boundaries

Elizabeth’s first question for reflection is to analyze which systems stance seems hardest or most counterintuitive. Timescale or playing with spatial boundaries are the two that would be the hardest to influence because the first is looking at systems with a longer time horizon, something that is rarely done when so many of our systems are driven by short election cycles. It’s challenging at best to get council members or the mayor of a community to sign on to a systems change when they are looking ahead 2-4 years to their next election. Similarly, thinking beyond manmade boundaries like city limits is another hurdle to systems thinking that is hard to overcome. It takes more coordination and partnering with other jurisdictions that may not have the same values as your own community. One system, watershed planning, does however tend to play with spatial boundaries and respect that a watershed doesn’t limit itself to easy to define jurisdictional boundaries.

Having a background as a planner makes prioritize learning and simulate scenarios come naturally. Planner’s are taught to continually grow their knowledge and expand capacity to think creatively about solutions. We also look to the future to try to anticipate trends and one way to do this is scenario planning. We often create multiple scenarios for city growth, then set our goals and priorities for the next 20 years accordingly to meet the desires scenario.

In order to practice the skills of a system stance, intention would need to be paid to each of these areas. Learning, for example, would need support to attend conferences, watch webinars, and participate in workshops that expand worldviews and provide new ideas. Building tolerance for uncertainty would require developing a certain amount of trust with your team that they will research to the best of their ability and collect the knowledge possible to make an educated guess, but then accept that it’s just that. The last two require leadership to look beyond the immediate future and boarders/boundaries.

The chapter ends with a list of “good bets” for systems. Within my world of housing, two good bets that are appropriate to the system are to improve the accuracy and timeliness of information flow and make careful use of energy and resources. The only way to know if a system is filling the gap as intended is to get timely and accurate information. We track a number of variables that contribute to closing the affordable housing supply gap regularly and report the metrics annually to ensure we are on track. Additionally, funding is limited when it comes to supporting the construction and renovation of affordable housing, so it’s imperative to carefully use the resource. It takes a combined effort in both these categories from all the housing agencies in the community to work towards closing the system gap because housing is such a complex system.