It seems like the first thing to do in a blog series about systems thinking is to define a system. A variety of resources agree that a system is a set of interconnected components that work together to achieve a common goal. It’s a bounded entity with defined inputs, processes, and outputs. For example, a school system is a system with students, teachers, administrators, curriculum, and facilities working together to provide education.
A system is bounded, however, as in the case of the school system there is the community, government policies, economic conditions and cultural factors that impact this system. This is called the ecosystem. An ecosystem is a broader, more encompassing concept. It refers to the entire network of relationships and interactions that surround a system. It includes the system itself, as well as the external factors that influence its behavior.
Recently, Partners for Impact has been working with organizations that are acknowledging the system they are working in and the fact that there is an ecosystem surrounding that system that impacts everything they do. For the last five years, we have been working with S3:Housing Connect in Lee County. Initially, the work focused on improving the shelter response system, building organizational capacity for the organizations providing services including securing new funding, creating additional services to fill crucial gaps, and building a stronger referral network. This housing services system began to improve and people were moving into shelter and improving their income. However, over the past two years, S3:Housing Connect has discovered that they are simply not moving people out of the shelter into permanent housing faster than individuals are falling into homelessness. They have shifted their focus to engaging a broader network of community members to advocate for more affordable housing in Lee County. In this example, the system is homelessness and the ecosystem is housing and local economic development.
The big lesson in the above example is that as homelessness rises we have two options; continue to build shelters and emergency housing response systems or create affordable housing units for those at the lowest income levels. Unfortunately, if we focus on creating shelter the problem of homelessness appears to grow. People need to come in the “front door” of the homeless services system with no way to get out the “back door” to permanent housing they can afford.
View more of our case studies in our Portfolio.