Systems shape our lives every day, yet too often they fail to work for the people they are meant to support.
Board member Anya Wooddissee shares why rethinking systems and cultures is essential to creating more inclusive futures and achieving lasting change.
Systems. A word that means something never quite tangible. Systems are the way that services, organisations and strategies are designed, and work together, over time.
“Systems feel untouchable, impenetrable, and yet we are the system.”
The launch of our new strategy gives me a selfish moment to reflect on what this means to me, as a trustee, as a local authority commissioner, and as an advocate for those I love. I am particularly drawn to our commitment to rethinking systems and cultures, because whether definable or not, they shape people’s lives every day.
This is why our commitment to continue to challenge the norm matters. The idea is relatively simple; systems work better when they are built around people’s rights and experiences. It gives me another pillar to lean on, another guiding light towards a better future.
We find ourselves in an uncertain time. Division, change and noise fill our lives, both personally and professionally. For some of our most vulnerable citizens, the most basic of human rights can be a struggle to have met. We know that inequality is widening, with income and digital gaps increasing. The need for action feels greater than ever.
It is a time where, again, we call for lived experience to be at the heart of system redesign. We call for human rights to be fundamental in all that the system does. We call for authentic coproduction with people with lived experience to inform the decisions that impact their lives.
We look to the systems around us for stability and safety. To look after us, to help us navigate difficult times, and to push us to reach our potential.
Yet, too often, these systems are not inclusive by design. They do not deliver what people need, what people are entitled to. They create confusion and a lack of equality, mostly not through intention, but through accidental design. That is not to ignore the hard decisions that are driven by the F word… funding. But systems are much bigger than funding. Systems have the ability to pick people up, or make life even harder.
Through my work and my personal life, I see examples of where systems expect people to change to fit in. We ask people to focus on their difficulties rather than their strengths to prove they need support, whilst all the while championing a strengths-based approach. We discriminate through over-complicated eligibility criteria, requiring diagnosis when waiting lists continue to rise. We make transition points complicated, with a lack of consistency at key points in a person’s life, and then we ask why it all went wrong.
But, it doesn’t have to be like this. I also draw on examples where clear leadership, coproduction and better design have led to accessibility and true citizenship. System change feels daunting, until you look to small changes that add up. Systems are built of many moving parts, which means there are many opportunities to disrupt the status quo.
The system does not always hold the time, the flexibility or the mechanisms to truly understand what needs to change. At times of change, it is important that the system looks to those it can lean on for support to rebuild, better. This is the space NDTi thrives in, where we listen, learn and challenge.
Rethinking systems is not about changing everything overnight, but it is about being brave. Being brave enough to ask: why do we do it this way? Why can’t we try something new? It is about having better ambitions and aspirations.
Systems are created by people, and that means that they can be reimagined by people too. But this must be done in a way that empowers people to live the life they aspire to.