Thread by @stevebosserman

To make fundamental changes in the behavior of a #SocialSystem requires its #agents adopt an alternative #purpose and #OrganizingPrinciples to those currently in place. If successful, this shift will create a new social system with significantly different #rules and #boundaries.

Any social system change process begins with a set of conversations among agents in the system about how to better apply its purpose and organizing principles. This leads to experimentation with alternatives, then modification of the rules and boundaries to adopt those that work.

Important topics for #conversation at the outset of an intentional #SocialSystem #ChangeProcess are those that bring #agents in the system together to recall and / or clarify the system’s #purpose and #OrganizingPrinciples then to either confirm them or challenge their relevance.

The #purpose of a #SocialSystem is to continually seek its #truth. Every social system starts with a truth-seeking purpose. Over time, its #agents often lose sight of it. The system drifts. It’s then at risk to lose its #integrity. If so, convene #conversations to renew purpose.

The #OrganizingPrinciples (OPs) of a #SocialSystem define who’s in, who’s connected to whom, and who benefits from due process in advance of its #RulesAndBoundaries that follow. If the system declines, convene conversations about OPs so more are in, connected, and treated fairly.

One can apply the combination of purpose, who’s in, who’s connected to whom, and who benefits from due process to almost any social system regardless of its membership, location, or narrative and learn where / how to intervene to avert its impending failure and loss of integrity.

Interventions address social system failures that invariably result from the exclusion of agents from membership in the system or a lack of interconnectedness among agents who are members in the system, or a denial of due process for agents who actively participate in the system.

Interventions begin with #ConversationsThatMatter wherein #agents with the authority to modify rules and boundaries invite agents who have not been included to talk about topics they don’t get to discuss and identify opportunities where they can collectively pursue #WaysThatWork.

Successful #ConversationsThatMatter result from attention given to key #questions: Who are the conveners? Who do #conveners invite and how? What do conveners place on the #agenda and how they select those items? Where, when, and by what means do “Conversations That Matter” occur?

The success #metrics for #ConversationsThatMatter include: #Participation—who attended? How did they contribute? #Agreements / #Commitments—who is going to do what by when and why is it important? #Communication—how will participants manage the #narrative about the conversation?