An ethos of active and self-directed learning is the only way in which individuals and society can manage change in an inclusive and equitable fashion.
Onko Kingma and Ian Falk1
Challenge: What knowledge do you need to internalize to develop a deep understanding of a living systems approach to sustainability practice?
Cluster: Capability Practice Patterns
Type: Essential Practice Pattern
Purpose
The purpose of this Pattern is to spark sustainability practitioners to explore the Living Systems Practice knowledge ecosystem to support the development of their sustainability practice.
Pattern Description
The Knowledge Pattern frames a knowledge ecosystem of guiding theories, frameworks and practices to help the advanced sustainability practitioner apply a Living Systems approach in sustainability transformation. This knowledge ecosystem is supported by research and practice in academic research and industry case studies from many different researchers and practitioners, as well as my own PhD research and sustainability practice.
Some links to papers, articles and web sites are provided below. Follow the links to the Elemental Patterns at the end of this Pattern for more information and further links to help build your understanding of the knowledge behind Living Systems Practice.
Elemental Patterns
Sustainability: This Element outlines the theory and practice of sustainable development that is fundamental knowledge for sustainability practitioner.s I have included it in the Knowledge Pattern because it is a very fast-growing knowledge area, with so many elements connecting, and in Living Systems Practice, the growing knowledge base is a major driver of change. As per the diagram shown in the previous section on the Scope of Sustainability practice, sustainability practitioners may have their specialist practice area; but this must extend into generalist knowledge areas across many different themes, as so many issues are connected. It is incumbent on sustainability practitioners to maintain their personal knowledge base.
Creativity: As we must purposefully create our shared future, we should bring a host of creativity and innovation practices to any transformation initiative. Strategic design and design thinking methodologies enable any change process to incorporate a design-led approach.
Systems: The world is increasingly complex, so we must adapt our practice to align with contemporary thinking about complexity, (or complex adaptive systems). We also must understand how to work in change and transformation accounting for complexity and emergence, and how human systems really work as complex, living systems. The Systems Elemental Pattern includes the concept of Pattern Languages, which have been part of systems thinking discourse for many years. Adapted to living systems and emergence, Patterns become guides to practice in complex settings. Patterns are either forms of system stability or new atterns emerging with a system undergoing change. They are guidelines to facilitate action within adapting systems rather than strict rules of how to get things done.
Learning: Humans learn better in context rather than in the abstract, and in real-world change situations. Thus, learning-by-doing is a critical dimension of sustained change through adoption of new ways of being, thinking and action. Concepts in authentic experiential learning were developed in the 1920s by John Dewey, so while the ideas are not new, they have taken a long time to be seriously considered as a practical approach to learning beyond school education, vocational training and higher education. Learning is the leading basis of feedback in any human system, and so reflective practice connects learning to experience through response, reflection and adaptation. Through learning-as-feedback, individuals can continue developing their personal practice, and participants in the practice context can learn to adapt their transformation towards sustainability goals.
Behaviour: Behaviour change is an important aspect of change for sustainability, yet strictly behaviourist approaches are not always the most useful for achieving deep cultural change. The behaviourist approach would represent the kind of behaviour change bought about by policy, regulation, taxes, reward and punishment. This approach has its place in the sustainability agenda, but the types of cultural change engendered by this approach are questionable: it may be shallow, fickle and begrudging. Cognitive approaches to change can achieve behavoiour change outcomes rather than strictly behaviourist approaches, and thus may be more useful for sustainability transformation. In this Elemental Pattern, the key dimensions of behaviour change are included.
Participation: In research, design, action and evaluation, including and empowering participants within a system to understand and shape that system has been demonstrated to be the most effective way to work with complexity, rather than the usual command-and-control linear ways of change. Many of the practical methods used in Design Thinking and social and organisation change processes were developed over many decades from the 1960s in community development and the appropriate technology movement – and this is often not acknowledged. Aligned with community development practice, the principle of participation changes the emphasis in the transition from a financial lens to a more human-centred participatory lens.
Narrative: People tend to respond better to stories of change rather than cold analysis of facts. Desired change can be embedded in stories, and transformation progress can enable new stories to be told as part of the embedding process. Narrative methods have been used in diverse applications from community development to knowledge management in large corporations.
Futures: Design and change is inherently about future possibilities. Any change process should be informed through ideas of multiple possible future trajectories to influence and inform design-decision-making in the present moment. There are many different knowledge perspectives on futures thinking, from forecasting to prediction through to backcasting from possible futures. In a complexity-based approach, any application of futures methods must be mindful of the degree of complexity.
Livelihoods: While economics is an inherent dimension of sustainable development, my preference is to broaden the dimension of economic development into ultimate questions of sustainable livelihood – that is, how we live in place (or as indigenous Australians prefer – “on country”). As a result, knowledge about living well on country underpins the Living Systems Practice methodology.
Technacy: The human capability to understand, interact and shape socio-technical systems as appropriate to human and environmental contexts is “technacy”. With a technate approach, a deeper understanding of the opportunities and impacts of technology enable wiser technology choice, which is particularly important for sustainability. Technacy thinking therefore enables participants in change to place technology development and use in the context of complexity.
Innovation: An increasingly broad field of research, study and practice, innovation and transformation both have the aims of creating something new and putting it into practice. There are many perspectives on innovation, innovation processes, innovation capability and diffusion of innovations and these have informed many aspects of LSP. Broader than creativity, innovation situates change within a socio-technical system, and the challenge is to diffuse the change through a social system to support innovation adoption and sustainability.
Transitions: The socio-technical and multi-level character of human systems is critical for an understanding of change, and transitions theories provide insight into how sustainability can scale up and out as part of a transformation process.
Atlas Navigation
Go to the Elemental Patterns within the Knowledge Pattern:
Sustainability Creativity Systems Learning Behaviour Participation Narrative Futures Livelihoods Technacy Innovation Transitions
Go to the Practitioner Pattern within the Capability Patterns Cluster
Go to the Soul Pattern within the Capability Patterns Cluster
Version
Version 1.0 - 2 Jun 2024
Version 1.1 - 15 July 2025
Kingma, O. & Falk, I. (2001) Learning to manage change in communities: a way forward, in Falk, I. (Ed.) Learning to Manage Change: Developing regional communities for a local-global millennium. (pp.231-241) Adelaide: National Centre for Vocational Education Research.