Systems convening is an emerging and not well recognised activity which can generate challenges for individuals working in this way.

Individuals working in a systems convening way need to have the following which are developed and learnt over time and with experience:

• Personal sense of mission with commitment to long-term sustainable results which provides their credibility and sustains them through the many challenges the role brings
• Ability to work with and mobilise others to construct a shared narrative, agenda and actions often working behind the scenes guiding while others lead the adaptation and adoption
• Legitimacy and credibility – deep enough to gain respect but wide enough to influence across boundaries and enable engagement
• Networks with close colleagues whose networks they can tap into
• An outward and growth mindset focused on the bigger system
• Skills to work across boundaries and develop partnerships, focused around a shared purpose
• Ability to identify opportunities to learn together, to bring diverse people together in an adaptive space to learn and develop together
• A range of skills, importance of each varies depending on the situation.
• Many characteristics needed of a system leader although they may not be in an official position of leadership

Working to convene systems requires individuals ideally to be:

• Idealistic, have a pioneering spirit
• Ambitious, bold, passionate, enthusiastic, energetic with pragmatism to make it happen
• Comfortable at the edges of an organisation
• Politically astute
• Knowledgeable about the system, improvement, spread, adoption and sustainability
• Impartial, trusted
• Persistent and optimistic but realistic and resilient
• Humble, not a hero, not a technical expert
• Able to open their mind, heart and will, be reflective

Such individuals:

• Think in interdependent ways
• See systems, patterns and connections
• Hold multiple perspectives at the same time
• Take short and long-term perspectives, see big picture and the detail
• Are comfortable with tensions, paradoxes and uncertainty
• Manage polarities which may be in tension or even in conflict
• Leverage personal and organisational networks, communicates and builds relationships
• Make and take opportunities

Read the glossary