The System Shift Network APPROACH

We help organisations create social networks and design spaces to support their members and facilitate cross-sector dialogue, collaboration and emergence in order to achieve public networked empathic intelligence.

Our approach to social network design is about providing a safe digital space for people to communicate and work closely with each other in co-creating and co-designing ideas, resources and strategic approaches across programmes of research, communication and action. This is how we can achieve the collective intelligence needed to navigate the global phase-shift.

Open conversation

Collective intelligence requires people to be able to freely start threads and discuss ideas, actions, and share their work, test hypotheses, and hone both concepts and action proposals with a network of leading experts across multiple fields of theory and practice, across the natural and social sciences, as well as policy, media, and real-world sectors. These conversation spaces need to adhere to fundamental guidelines to facilitate generative dialogue, trust-building, and mutual respect - all of which are essential to allow actionable insights and collaborative opportunities to emerge.

Crowdsourcing intelligence

Key questions need to asked of a community around core challenges to facilitate the sourcing of actionable insights. How do we mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the food system? How do we address the oil sector crisis? How do we transition to a more just and resilient economic system during this time of GDP contraction? The dialogue that emerges from such questions produces insights of benefit for all members, that in turn feedbacks into our research, communication and action priorities.

Cross-sector collaboration

Collective intelligence requires collaboration between scientific experts, engineers, policymakers, funders and business leaders in a network on issues that emerge from dialogue in open conversation and intelligence crowdsourcing. For instance, discussions around food systems may help inform food business entrepreneurs in our network. Similarly, discussions around energy transition may encouraging business leaders to work with policymakers on innovative solutions. The idea is to create a virtuous cycle of community learning and action for system change.

Symposiums

One avenue to facilitate public networked empathic intelligence is to convene online action-intelligence symposiums in written format, to offer deeper expert engagement from multiple perspectives around key themes or questions inspired by dialogue in our open conversation and crowdsourcing spaces. This is a process we developed and applied via INSURGE INTELLIGENCE. Key experts weigh in with their perspectives on core problems or controversies in a curated dialogue which allows us to develop a shared body of intelligence comprising verifiable data-points, a clear grasp of an emergent consensus in interpretative analysis, a clear grasp of the basis of divergent views, and common constructive action-points that could be taken up by various stakeholders. This process can feedback into cross-sector collaboration actively exploring how these findings can inform and support participants from different sectors.