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The Formal and the Informal – Together

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When we engage with the world in order to better it, often we end-up primarily studying, engaging with and intervening in formal systems.

The totality however must include informal systems as well, since, depending on the context where we are situated, these informal systems might actually be the ones that predominantly shape or influence the outcomes we see and wish to address.

When, for example, we want to address challenges related to Public Health, the tendency is to look at the Public Health Value Creating Complex consisting of institutions and enterprises that provide services to the Public Health Ecosystem.

A comprehensive systemic analysis of such formal systems might lead us to understand the worldviews, beliefs and values that informed them, that gave rise to the concepts on which the designs are based. These dominant worldviews and conceptual architectures, obscure other forms of value creation, often inadvertently or deliberately creating conditions that lead to their suppression or elimination.

The formal systems however do not adequately fulfill the functions that the informal systems play, for various reasons. Needs they fulfill might be invisible, or poorly understood – some of the reasons why their value is overlooked. There could be others, more pragmatic concerns of viability or feasibility.

I think, when the formal and the informal are seen together, a better integration might be possible, whereby the overall design of the health complex, recognizes the whole and the formal and the informal complement each other.

This process of reconciliation among the stakeholders is critical – so rather than just focus on addressing the conflict and differences within the formal, the perspectives of the informal should also be included in strategic design efforts.

An Upside to the Down – systems, foundational to Strategic Impact

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The practice of Strategic Impact Making, particularly in complex contexts, touches on many bodies of knowledge and practices. However, this brief note talks about how Systems Practice is foundational to such work.

Assuming that all such work begins with a certain objective, an issue or challenge that needs addressing, the System/s associated with that issue become the ‘Text’ that one tries to understand and decipher.

The heart of the Systems Impact making task involves understanding the natural evolution of the system in the face of Contextual Forces and the kind of interventions one might or must make to shift the System’s trajectory in a desired direction, towards a better outcome.

In order to understand the impact of any system of forces, whether contemporary, emerging or future, one would need to have an understanding of how the system would behave in its interaction with those forces. It would naturally be impossible, for example, to say anything about the future of such a system, without that foundational understanding.

For complex systems that implies understanding the system in its many dimensions, at many scales – from micro to mega and the interactions among and between them.

It also implies understanding the Context. Now, there is usually much literature, of a generic nature about Contextual issues – such as one might find, the Future of an Industry, a Sector, or some other Social or Environmental issue as an example.

However, most such discourses are of a generic nature. They make claims that are varied, depending on who makes them and they change with time. They have implied in them ideological paradigms, worldviews etc., which might be worth examining critically.

However, they serve a limited purpose. The issue that you might be working on or interested in is often a specific issue, located in a specific local context. Understanding such an issue might benefit from the Generic descriptions mentioned above, but basing your actions purely on these would mot certainly be problematic and likely sources of serious error.

This is why an investment in discovering and understanding the systems you are engaged with is crucial. A deliberate attempt should be made in this process to correct for any errors in understanding by going broad and deep.

When dealiing with complex challenges, the discovery process leads to the uncovering of a complex reality, and an ecology of systems – wide in variety.

This uncovering turns your world upside down, but to borrow from an eponymous title of a book (Homer-Dixon – The Upside of Down), there is great strategic advantage in this process – An Upside to the Down.