From Systems Thinking to Daily Practice: How Network Leaders Turn Complexity into Action

By Nono Sekhoto
Contributing Editor: Claudia Piacenza

For many people working in networks, communities, and collaborative initiatives, the challenge is not understanding systems change—it is knowing what to do with that understanding. The language of complexity, systems thinking, and collective action has become increasingly familiar. Yet for many practitioners, a nagging question remains: What does engaging with systems change actually look like in practice?

This resonates well with my experience and some of the network practitioners in my network. 

As a practitioner and network leader, I’ve spent years bringing people together around a shared purpose that supports a community to navigate complex challenges that no single person or organization can solve alone. I work with individuals and institutions that recognize the need for collaboration, but often struggle to translate broad ambitions into practical action. Like many network leaders, I have encountered the gap between understanding complexity and navigating it in everyday practice.

Through my journey, I hope others can gain some insight around understanding that systems change is not a theory to be mastered. It is a practice to be lived.

Moving from Delivering Outcomes to Serving the Problem

One of the most significant shifts in my work was understanding the different ways success looks in a network: from members building strong connections, to others supporting each other’s work to others collaborating on initiatives that will have a long term impact. 

Traditional approaches often focus on meeting targets, delivering predefined outputs, and demonstrating direct impact. These methods are important, but they become limiting when addressing complex challenges such as food security, climate resilience, or social development. These issues do not belong to any one organization, and no single actor can control the outcomes.

“Rather than positioning myself as a person with the answers, I embraced a role that was more relational and supportive. My responsibility was not to direct the network but to create the conditions in which connections, ideas, and actions could emerge.”

Over time, my focus turned to helping members see opportunities to participate based on their desires, strength and energy. Rather than the “hero” chasing outcomes they think might contribute the most impact,  many “contributors” understand that the small part they play combines with others to co-create greater impact to the system over time. 

This shift changed the nature of my leadership. Rather than positioning myself as a person with the answers, I embraced a role that was more relational and supportive. My responsibility was not to direct the network but to create the conditions in which connections, ideas, and actions could emerge.

In this way, leadership became less about control and more about stewardship—supporting people to work together around a shared purpose.

Accepting the Reality of Complexity

The transition to wayfinding was not always comfortable. 

Many practitioners are trained to seek clear cause-and-effect relationships. They may want to see evidence that a particular action led directly to a particular result. However, in complex systems, change rarely unfolds in a straight line.

Progress can be slow. Outcomes may appear months or even years after an intervention. Success usually emerges through the combined efforts of many actors rather than the actions of a single person or organization.

One of the greatest challenges was learning to become comfortable with ambiguity. The network often made progress that was difficult to measure immediately. New relationships formed. Trust deepened. Perspectives shifted. Collaborative opportunities emerged. These developments were significant, even when they did not fit neatly into conventional reporting frameworks.

Rather than viewing uncertainty as a problem to eliminate, I learned to see it as an inherent feature of working in complex systems. The task was not to remove the complexity but to learn how to navigate it. Wayfinding—walking into the emerging future together—calls for different capacities. 

Starting Where You Are

A common concern we, as network practitioners hear from network members is simple and understandable:

"I'm not powerful enough to change the system."

The statement reflects a misconception that systems change only happens at large scales through powerful institutions or major policy interventions.In practice, meaningful change often begins much closer to home.

Another concept I’ve learned is the idea of zooming in and zooming out. As practitioners we need to have the ability to see the broader system while remaining grounded in a manageable sphere of action. Looking outward helps people understand how different actors, incentives, and dynamics interact. Looking inward helps them identify where they can make a tangible contribution.

This perspective recognizes an important truth: system boundaries are, to some extent, arbitrary. We draw them so that we can make sense of complexity and determine where to focus our efforts.

Systems change does not require operating at a national or global scale. It can begin within a team, a community, a local initiative, or a network. What matters is understanding how local actions connect to broader patterns and possibilities.

Leading Through the Network

As the network evolved, I became increasingly aware that my role was not to drive every change myself. My real contribution was helping others discover where and how they could act.

This work shows up in several practical ways.

When new members join the network, onboarding is more than an administrative process. It is an opportunity to help people understand the shared purpose that brings the network together, the larger system within which the network operates, and how to be a contributor. 

When the network convenes, I create spaces where participants can see connections that would otherwise remain invisible. Conversations are designed not merely to exchange information but to strengthen trust and reveal complementary strengths that can stimulate collaboration.

“The most important work of a network often happens between connections. It occurs in the relationships people build, the actions they take together, and the collaborations that emerge long after formal gatherings end.”

In one-on-one engagements, I often help members identify their own entry points for action. Rather than prescribing solutions, I encourage reflection on where each person has influence, credibility, relationships, or expertise that can contribute to broader change.

Through these interactions, I reinforce a critical lesson: the most important work of a network often happens between connections. It occurs in the relationships people build, the actions they take together, and the collaborations that emerge long after formal gatherings end.

Recognizing Resistance as a Sign of Progress

One of the most surprising lessons for me has been learning to interpret resistance differently.

In many initiatives, resistance in the system we are trying to change is viewed as evidence that something is not working. Low engagement, pushback, disagreement, or tension can feel discouraging. Yet I have come to see resistance as an important signal.

Genuine systems change inevitably encounters entrenched interests, established power structures, and familiar patterns of behavior. When people challenge new ideas or question established ways of working, it often suggests that something meaningful is shifting. 

Resistance provides valuable information. It highlights where incentives are misaligned, where assumptions are being challenged, and where transformation is taking place.

When network members experience resistance in the broader system, we as network leaders, can help reframe the tensions as signs that point to the current architecture of the system being tested. When this happens, the people the system is working for resist change because they are satisfied by the status quo and fear the loss that may accompany adaptation. 

By interpreting these reactions thoughtfully, participants gain deeper insight into the system they are trying to influence. This is one aspect of wayfinding.

Expanding Agency: Everyone Has A Role 

Perhaps the most important message to share with the network is that everyone has a role to play.

Too often, people assume that influence belongs exclusively to those with formal authority or those with significant resources. Network practice often reveals the opposite. Change is distributed across many actors, each contributing from their own sphere of influence.

Some members amplify voices that would otherwise go unheard. Others shape narratives within their organizations. Some build bridges between disconnected groups. Others introduce new ideas, convene relevant conversations, or demonstrate alternative approaches through their own work.

None of these actions may seem transformative on their own. Yet together they create the conditions for larger shifts to occur.

I would continuously remind members that they do not need permission to contribute to systems change. They need only to recognize the influence they already possess and use it intentionally.

From Overwhelm to Action

Reflecting on my journey, the broader lesson I’d like to share with anyone working in complexity is that the goal is not to solve the system once and for all. Complex systems do not offer that possibility. Instead, the challenge is to navigate complexity with purpose, curiosity, and collaboration.

We gain agency by focusing on shared challenges rather than shared goals, and accepting uncertainty as part of the process. In practice systems leadership looks like members engaged in identifying practical entry points for action, experimenting and learning along the way, and extending beyond the network to help others recognize their own agency.

Our work as network practitioners needs to highlight the reality that meaningful change does not begin with perfect certainty or comprehensive control. It begins when people choose to act from where they are, connect their efforts with others, and remain committed to learning along the way.

I came across this concept of systemic leadership from Wasafiri, who are systems change consultants. Their SystemsCraft approach has contributed to how I understand complexity and ultimately how to incorporate systems learning in network practice.