When the ripples come into view
At the LGA SA Climate Practitioners’ Network Forum last week, I recognised seven of the twelve presenters, excluding the keynote speakers, as people I’ve worked with over the years.
I felt proud of them. I also felt quietly proud of the years of background work that had brought our paths together. Those seven people have developed their practice through many experiences and relationships, and each has taken their work in their own direction.
Still, sitting in that room gave me a rare glimpse of how work can continue to evolve long after a conversation or program has ended.
A room full of practical questions
Across the forum, people were asking how to help communities understand and respond to climate issues. They were exploring the governance, resources and relationships needed to make climate action part of everyday work. The discussion of Homes for Tomorrow brought this into focus for me: how might real homes, local stories and trusted neighbours influence decisions before those decisions are locked in?
These questions reach into the way people see their work. A practitioner may begin to notice assumptions they had previously taken for granted, or see how a decision in one part of a council affects another. That extended view then has to find a place alongside the habits, priorities and assumptions of the organisation they work in.
Organisational culture shapes what people can readily discuss, decide and do. Working with it requires curiosity about the values people live by and the assumptions beneath familiar practices. I could hear that curiosity in many of the questions raised at the forum.
How influence travels
In the latest session of my Systemic Change program, we explored emergent change. The forum gave me a personal reason to keep thinking about it.
When I work with people, I hope they leave with a broader way of seeing the system they are part of. Perhaps they become curious about whose perspective is missing, or recognise a pattern they can now question with colleagues. They then test that understanding in the context of their own organisation and relationships.
I can observe some of that learning as we work together. I cannot specify where it will lead, what else will shape it, or when its effects might become visible. Change emerges as people respond to one another and to the conditions around them. My research into organisational change has followed this process of emergence over time.
That makes measuring ‘impact’ a fraught quest. What could I reasonably attribute to my work when a practitioner’s contribution has grown through years of learning, effort and collaboration? At the forum, I could recognise a connection without claiming a precise output.
I happened to be in the right room to see one small part of that evolution.
It has left me with a question I think is worth carrying into our own work: What are we noticing now that might be an early sign of change, even though we cannot yet know where it will lead?