System Leadership for Impact
Organisations are less hierarchical and more complex than they used to be. System leadership is about being able to lead in complex, networked, collaborative organisations where the traditional rules no longer apply.
Theory
This resource supports you to understand the difference between traditional and systems leadership:
TASK: Do you think you are working in a traditional or systems oriented organization? How well does this support you to develop impact evaluation? What do you need to do about that?
This resource from the Virtual Staff College is an excellent overview of system leadership and presents a model of how to achieve it:
TASK: Which aspects of systems leadership feel comfortable to you? Are there any ideas presented in this model that you disagree with? What has challenged you in thinking about system leadership?
This is an introduction to system thinking (useful to use alongside system leadership):
WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW6MXqzeg7M
TASK: Are you a system thinker? Would it be helpful to use system thinking? How can you use this way of thinking more often with colleagues?
This guide is geared to support system leadership across organisational boundaries:
EXPLORE: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/topics/system-leadership?gclid=Cj0KCQjw94WZBhDtARIsAKxWG-8Sty83kDaoKofjr7WEgFEcT6qS0wpJKNm6--oztez5UhnWPmIf6eYaAukNEALw_wcB
TASK: Does your impact leadership work mean you have to liaise with funders to agree outcomes and measurement? Do you need to work with other organisations (e.g. schools, YOT’s) to share data? How can the ideas here help you to work more easily across these boundaries to achieve impact.
Tools and tips
This guide contains question cards to help you explore your system leadership:
EXPLORE: https://www.nwacademy.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/resource_files/NHS%20NWLA%20System%20Leadership%20Cards%202019%20Digital.pdf
This website offers an interesting range of tools to support system leadership in its broadest sense:
EXPLORE: https://www.systemsfieldbook.org/tools
This resource identifies nine qualities of effective system leaders and might be a useful reflective tool:
READ: https://www.equalmeasure.org/characteristics-effective-systems-leaders/
TASK: Which of these resources were you drawn to and why? Which tools will be most useful to you? When will you use the tool? Who with? How will you introduce it? What do you hope to achieve by using this tool? How will you measure the impact of the tool?