Director Multisolving Institute. She/her. Systems thinking, climate justice, and multisolving, with a sprinkle of gardens and the odd puns. @bethsawin on X

MULTISOLVING: Solution Clusters Would you like to be a part of nourishing dialogue that blends climate action with community-building to solve multiple issues at once? Around the world, people are org...

These books, aimed at the general reader, can help you contextualize and respond to our current crises.

YouTube video by Nate Hagens

I write a lot in these letters about the power of multisolving and about the bright spots around the world where it is happening. But of course, the bright spots are only part of the picture. If you are multisolving, you are attempting to transform complex systems. And systems, by their nature, resist change. While natural and expected, resistance to your multisolving efforts can also be frustrating and exhausting!   One type of resistance is inertia: that tendency to do what we've always done, even if the results aren't great. What helps me cope with the inertia I encounter in systems is remembering all the times I've exhibited it myself.   In me, and maybe in you, fear of the unknown can lead to inertia.   Sometimes inertia is also generated by the system's own incentives. I remember one leader who had a chance to multisolve but knew her boss expected results on a tight timeline. She chose to keep the stakeholder group (and thus the chances for multisolving) narrow in order to deliver a speedy result.   What can you do when you meet inertia? The first thing is to recognize it for what it is: natural, human, and something we sometimes need in complex systems. Without inertia, systems would be bouncing around wildly. They'd be responding to the slightest signals and reacting to their own reactions.   That doesn't mean you have to accept inertia, or that you can't shift it. But it might be less frustrating to expect it and see it for the self- and system-protector that it is. When you are already frustrated that some part of a system is moving too slowly, it can be hard to slow down even more to be curious, but I'd recommend it. Can you listen enough to the recalcitrant parts to understand the fears at play? Can you address those fears? Can you play "detective" and search around for incentives that might be contributing to inertia? That might help you discover that job descriptions, project goals, or reward structures need tweaking.   There’s a second type of resistance to multisolving. I’d call it "push-back". Sub-systems push back when they are more dedicated to narrow, sub-system goals than they are to the "common good" objective of most multisolving. In my next letter, I’ll share some thoughts about why push-back crops up, and what our choices are when we encounter it.