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Deborah Frieze on change and localism

Posted by Peter Donovan 2 years, 1 month ago in policy and framing /

Deborah Frieze's remarkable TED talk on change.

"The way we're trying to change the world is not going to work, and it's never going to work. I'd like to offer a radical theory of change, based on my experience working around the world with people trying to solve our most pressing problems. My belief turns most of our efforts to fix our world on their heads."

"Here it is: you can't fundamentally change big systems. You can only abandon them and start over, or offer hospice to what's dying. By big systems, I mean education, healthcare, government, business, anything characterized by over-organization, standardization, regulation, and compliance. I'm saying you can't undo, fix, reverse engineer, re-direct, or re-assign these systems. That's because they're not machines, they're living systems."

Which of her four roles are you playing?