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Making systems thinking human with accessible educational resources
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“This [toolkit] has helped us look at problems in the system and understand how to address them rather than going straight for short term solutions. This will hugely impact the way we work to develop the agricultural sector."
-Agricultural Value Chains project team, USAID
Introduction
Intractable to actionable
A sustainable future depends on homes that can not only produce but store their own energy. By storing solar, homes can power themselves through the night, eliminate gas appliances and even feed back to the grid at times of peak demand.
Lunar Energy was founded in 2020 to help move the world towards all-electric homes.
Daylight has been Lunar’s design partner from the beginning.
Systems thinking is a powerful tool for tackling persistent, complex, and dynamic social impact challenges. It reveals patterns that perpetuate situations and identifies points of leverage with the greatest potential to bring about healthy change. Unfortunately, overly-academic framing of systems thinking can make it inaccessible.
The Omidyar Group (TOG), an ambitious philanthropic organization focused on intractable issues, wanted to change that. They partnered with Daylight to help make systems thinking more human, both to help TOG internal teams find greater success and to support the broader social impact community.
Combining TOG's deep systems expertise with Daylight’s relentless desire to make things actionable and human, we built a powerful toolkit that gives practitioners a step-by-step approach to applying systems thinking. Our workbook, videos, and +Acumen course on the topic have reached thousands of people around the world as they strive to do good.
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Concept Architecture
The peanut butter & jelly approach
"How might we turn systems thinking into a simple recipe that anyone can follow?"
As we worked to translate the traditional presentation of systems thinking into something more approachable and actionable, we anchored ourselves to the metaphor of a PB&J recipe. While systems thinking is an inherently daunting and complex process, the metaphor served as a constant reminder of the simplicity we wanted to achieve. Like any foolproof recipe, we split the workbook into discrete, sensible steps and broke each of these steps down with direct, straightforward language. This stepwise approach, paired with real-life examples, gave TOG initiative teams the powerful but accessible tools they needed to apply systems thinking to their most stubborn social-impact challenges.
Prior to our rebrand work, the San Francisco Health Network's messaging placed emphasis on the providers and the system. The Network described itself as the City’s “only complete system of care.” The Network logo was an icon of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Through our work, we wanted to shift focus from describing the system to communicating the value added for the patient. We sought to:
- Publicly reaffirm San Francisco’s commitment to accessible health care for all of its residents, regardless of immigration status or insurance;
- Create a unifying brand that resonated deeply with patients and staff; and
- Give staff desperately needed tools to clearly and consistently describe the Network, its values, and its services.
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Content Strategy
Get set before getting started
Systems thinking can be a long and intense process that requires significant team time and effort. To ensure that teams were prepared and willing to take on that commitment, TOG wanted people to grasp the "why" behind systems thinking and become familiar with the necessary mindset shifts before they even began with the workbook. To meet this need, Daylight created several compelling videos illuminating the most crucial abstract concepts within systems thinking. Working in tandem with the design of the workbook, this multimodal content strategy made the introduction to systems thinking immediately tangible and comprehensible to both internal teams and external stakeholders alike.
Prior to our rebrand work, the San Francisco Health Network's messaging placed emphasis on the providers and the system. The Network described itself as the City’s “only complete system of care.” The Network logo was an icon of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Through our work, we wanted to shift focus from describing the system to communicating the value added for the patient. We sought to:
- Publicly reaffirm San Francisco’s commitment to accessible health care for all of its residents, regardless of immigration status or insurance;
- Create a unifying brand that resonated deeply with patients and staff; and
- Give staff desperately needed tools to clearly and consistently describe the Network, its values, and its services.
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Brand + Visual Design
Unifying visual language
To keep the material both inviting and consistent, we created a distinct visual language that was applied to every aspect of this work. Daylight designed the Systems Practice visual brand language to be both optimistic and mature, a natural extension of The Omidyar Group brand. An energetic color palette, bespoke iconography, and simple, san serif typefaces come together in uncluttered layouts to achieve this brand feeling. A schematic systems journey visual recurs throughout the workbook to help practitioners track their progress through the systems thinking process.
Prior to our rebrand work, the San Francisco Health Network's messaging placed emphasis on the providers and the system. The Network described itself as the City’s “only complete system of care.” The Network logo was an icon of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Through our work, we wanted to shift focus from describing the system to communicating the value added for the patient. We sought to:
- Publicly reaffirm San Francisco’s commitment to accessible health care for all of its residents, regardless of immigration status or insurance;
- Create a unifying brand that resonated deeply with patients and staff; and
- Give staff desperately needed tools to clearly and consistently describe the Network, its values, and its services.
- Give staff desperately needed tools to clearly and consistently describe the Network, its values, and its services.
- Give staff desperately needed tools to clearly and consistently describe the Network, its values, and its services.
- Give staff desperately needed tools to clearly and consistently describe the Network, its values, and its services.
- Give staff desperately needed tools to clearly and consistently describe the Network, its values, and its services.
- Give staff desperately needed tools to clearly and consistently describe the Network, its values, and its services.
- Give staff desperately needed tools to clearly and consistently describe the Network, its values, and its services.
- Give staff desperately needed tools to clearly and consistently describe the Network, its values, and its services.
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Impact
14,000 new systems thinkers in the world
This work has had significant impact both within TOG and in the greater social impact sector. Within TOG, this approach has been broadly adopted by teams across the organization. Beyond TOG, this work has become the centerpiece of a systems thinking course through +Acumen, a global learning platform for social impact leaders. The toolkit has been harnessed by over 14000+ people working for foundations, non-profits, NGOs and other social impact organizations across the globe.
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Related projects
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