Synopsis
Albert Einstein is credited with saying, "If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend fifty-five minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions." This book is about how to use those metaphorical first fifty-five minutes wisely. If we want to be successful when we innovate, act, or try to "change the system," we need to get serious about understanding the problem. But problems don't exist in a vacuum. They are enmeshed and ensnared in complexity. Moreover, the kinds of problems we face in our workplaces, institutions, and society at large are the results of systems.
Unfortunately, the world that most of us inhabit is focused on those last five minutes-rushing headlong toward a "solution" without having understood the problem. This happens in virtually every industry, organization, and sector of society. It's one of the reasons most new businesses fail, most public policies are reactive, and "innovation" (whether commercial or social) spends far too much time in the unicorn-seeking land of hackathons, design sprints, and slick pitches, where confident answers make poor substitutes for authentic understanding. We work in "solutions-driven" companies, we expect governments to deliver rapid fixes, and we ask schools to teach and test for the "right" answers, instead of asking new and better questions.
This book is an "atlas," an expansive compendium of foundational practices, concepts, frameworks, and tools for mapping and navigating systems. It will help you ask better questions and see deeper forces beneath the problems and symptoms visible on the surface. To those who lament that "the system is broken," "the system is rigged," or "it's a systemic problem," this is a guide to understanding those systems and hopefully feeling less helpless, alienated, and confused. The world is not linear, binary, or static. It is rich with complex systems, and it is changing rapidly and radically. But in order to keep up, we need to slow down and think. Set your watch to The 55 Minutes-your compass amid complexity.
About the Authors
James Stauch has authored or coauthored many guides, scans, and trend analyses on a range of contemporary social issues. A social innovation and systems change educator and consultant based in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Canada, he serves as Co-chair of the Banff Systems Summit and as Complex Systems Strategist with ATCO's SpaceLab. James is a Visiting Fellow at the Skoll Centre at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and was the founding Executive Director of the Institute for Community Prosperity at Mount Royal University, where he developed social innovation, leadership, and systems-focused learning programs for undergraduate students and the broader community. James has also been a foundation executive and philanthropy consultant, which included designing and managing Arctic and Northern programming with the Gordon Foundation. Having chaired several national and international grantmaking networks and consortia, James is currently a board member of Alberta Ecotrust Foundation and a member of the editorial advisory board of The Philanthropist journal.
Anna Johnson is a consultant and systems practitioner dedicated to helping organizations navigate complexity, build internal capacity, and design strategies rooted in systems thinking and mapping. Her work spans philanthropy, academia, social enterprise, and community initiatives, encompassing grassroots efforts and global education programs. With over a decade of experience at the intersection of community and academia, Anna has developed systems-focused learning programs at local, national, and global levels. She has held roles with Mount Royal University's Institute for Community Prosperity, Ashoka Canada, and the University of Oxford's Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. At the Skoll Centre, she managed the global Map the System challenge, collaborating with institutions and students worldwide to apply systems thinking to complex social and environmental challenges. Previously, Anna served as capacity building associate at the Calgary Foundation, where she leveraged her expertise in systems thinking and social innovation to strengthen both organizational and sector-wide capacity.
Daniela Papi-Thornton is an educator, facilitator, coach, and author based in Boulder, Colorado. Her work focuses on systems-led leadership, an approach to social innovation that centers on systems understanding. Daniela is currently a lecturer at University of Colorado Boulder and a consultant with a range of education organizations, foundations, and for-profit companies looking to contribute to systems change. She previously served as a lecturer at Yale School of Management, Watson Institute, and Oxford's Saïd Business School, where she was also the deputy director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. She taught certificate courses for professionals through Chicago Booth's Hong Kong Campus and Mount Royal University as well as a social entrepreneurship certificate course at Dartmouth College. She designed an educational tool called the Impact Gaps Canvas, which is used at accelerator programs and in social impact education initiatives around the world, and she launched Map the System, a contest that runs at more than fifty global institutions each year. Daniela's work builds upon six years of emerging market entrepreneurial experience in Cambodia, where she ran a hybrid social enterprise educational organization. She also coauthored Learning Service: The Essential Guide to Volunteering Abroad (Red Press Ltd., 2018), a book about rethinking volunteer travel. She also authored an influential report titled Tackling Heropreneurship, and her TEDx Talks on these topics highlight some of her thinking.
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