Renaisi’s Guide to Systems Change: Activity 3 – Understanding the System
This is the third activity in Renaisi’s guide to systemic change. In May this year, we launched the initial findings of our year-long enquiry into what it takes to change a system. Here, Senior Project Manager in Place and Systemic Change Kezia Jackson-Harman reflects on the overall learning and approach.
Find the Guide to Systems Change here, including examples of this work from our partner organisations.
This guide to systemic change sets out five activities that we have found critical for organisations and partnerships that want to change a system. We know that this journey will look different for each organisation and that the journey won’t be linear. You cannot tick one activity off and move to the next – you will need to continually work on and embed each activity in your work over time. But we do think that there is a clear starting point – and that starting point is yourself.
The article below sets out how we have seen organisations and partnerships progress the third activity in systemic change – Understanding.

Activity 3: Understanding
Develop a shared understanding of what is happening in the system and why, with a focus on interrogating power.
Why is this important?
Understanding the system is a critical step in changing it.
Getting to grips with how the issue you are trying to shift interacts with many other actors and issues is critical to making lasting change. Digging into how issues are connected forces you to understand how power works, and what upholds the status quo hierarchies around us. This begins to reveal the mental models that need to be shifted to bring systemic change (see the next Activity).
We’ve found that a tendency to view systemic change work as entirely dependent on an understanding of complexity (“if we only understood this complex system we’d be able to identify how to change it”), means Activity 3 often happens before Activity 1 and 2. Jumping into mapping out and designing for complexity means organisations will often overlook what is uncomfortable and lean towards systems optimisation rather than systemic change. It can also reinforce harmful power dynamics that undermine lived and frontline experience by deferring to ‘experts’ that understand the system.
We think the work to understand complexity and root causes in the system should be based on a deep understanding of what your own role in it is, established coproduction that upholds the insights of those experiencing systemic harm and collaboration across a broad and diverse coalition that is united in ambitions for change. That’s why this is the third Activity in our approach.
What does it look like in practice?
Once an initial coalition of individuals and organisations committed to systemic change is formed, the next activity is to develop a common understanding of what is driving systemic issues.
This begins with collectively examining the patterns and outcomes that we see in the current system. In practice, organisations and groups often take one of two approaches to deepen their understanding of the system:
- A formal structured process of exploring the system through research, participatory systems analysis workshops and developing systems maps. This requires bringing together those with different experiences of the system to map out the issues that are contributing to harm, identify where there are patterns and connections and develop a shared understanding of how change will happen.
Alongside involving those that you have engaged in Activity 1 and 2, where possible, it is useful to also bring organisations and individuals that might be initially opposed to systemic change into the mapping process. Bringing those who are opposed to change together with those advocating for change or experiencing harm from the current system, can build a deeper understanding of the system’s flaws and the harm that is felt by individuals. It is a powerful way to shift the perspectives of those that sit outside of the coalition for change and build more allies. Intentionally engage newcomers in the coalition, encouraging them to pick up the interrogation of their own role that your organisation is practicing and building relationships across them and more established coalition partners. - Delivering something closer to what you believe a new system should look like as a tool to engage wider system actors and those accessing services, alongside collecting data and insights that deepen your understanding of the system.
When taking this approach, developing shared processes to measure how the system is changing and identify what works can support partners to align more and more around a shared ambition for change. If partners cannot align their approach to learning and measuring success it is unlikely that the coalition will understand or value the same things, making deep collaboration challenging. Even when there are barriers to data sharing (often cited as a barrier to collaboration) aligning approaches to collecting and using data to adapt and learn can align everyone in the same direction of change.
Both approaches to Activity 3 can be effective ways to support coalitions to build in-depth of understanding of the system. But both can also fall short when the voice of those with lived experience is not centred or when relationships across the coalition are not strong enough to push organisational agendas aside. Understanding the role of power dynamics is critical to overcome this. To deepen your understanding of the system you have to identify where power is held in relationships across the system, why it is held in some places rather than others, and what steps might be necessary to redistribute it. This can surface some of the underlying narratives and attitudes that underpin the system, which dictate how decisions about power are made.
But discussions around power can be difficult and uncomfortable for many involved, particularly those that might not want to acknowledge their power and influence. That’s why we believe that going through the reflective process in Activity 1 is critical for any organisations and individuals engaging in this work – as its important to become comfortable with sharing power and acknowledging and owning the harm you contribute to, in order to honestly engage with others around systemic change.
Key questions to unpick in this activity:
- If you want to change a system, it is likely that this is because it is causing harm. What issues are driving or contributing to these harmful outcomes?
- What patterns do you see across those experiencing harm in the system? Why do these patterns exist?
- What structures, processes and institutions create these patterns? Or hold them in place?
- What narratives, beliefs or attitudes hold back those with power to change structures, processes and institutions that contribute to harm from changing them?
- Who currently holds power in the system? Who might need to hold power in order for the system to work differently?
- What does it look like in practice to shift where power sits, and how can we make that happen?
- Do all partners have access to the same information to understand how the system is working and take decisions about how you approach change?
Indicators of change:
- Harmful power dynamics, structures and processes are surfaced, encouraging individuals to take another look at their own role and what they need to change.
- Relationships deepen and sometimes broaden as actors develop a shared understanding of roles and what is going wrong.
- Processes for data collection shift and align, informed by the voices of those with lived experience of harm.
- Learning is shared and used collectively to adapt elements of the system.
We hope you’ll download and read the full guide, which sets out the full detail of our approach along with examples of this work from partner organisations including Youth Futures Foundation, Black Thrive and Smallwood Trust. which sets out the full detail of our approach along with examples of this work from partner organisations including Youth Futures Foundation, Black Thrive and Smallwood Trust.
For more information, please contact Kezia.

- Want to find out more?
- Contact Kezia Jackson-Harman on:
- 2045244916
- k.jackson-harman@renaisi.com