1
Visual Mapping Project
DBAS2104
Mapping System: Poverty in Urban Centers
Unskilled Labor
Lack of Electricity
Physical Labor
Illiteracy
Shorter Working Day
Weather
Lack of Work
Opportunities
Children in Labor Force
Low Income
Violent
Environments
Discrimination
Income to Survive
Inadequate Food and
Nutrition
Work Without
Medication
Illness
Poor Sanitation
Alienation and
Exploitation
Poverty
Student Guide to
Mapping a System
By Anna Johnson, Daniela Papi-Thornton, and James Stauch
Map the System is an initiative of the
Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship,
Sa Business School, University of Oxford
Produced in partnership with:
Additional funding from:
Student Guide to Mapping a System 1
Third Edition
Acknowledgements
ABOUT THE AUTHORS & SPECIAL THANKS
This Guide was co-created by Daniela Papi-Thornton, who runs an
educational consultancy Systems-Led Leadership, and Anna Johnson
and James Stauch of the Institute for Community Prosperity at Mount
Royal University (MRU). Daniela was formerly the Deputy Director of
the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at OxfordàSa Business
School. While there, she designed the Map the System challenge based
on her systems learning tool, the Impact Gaps Canvas, which was funded
by the Clore Social Leadership Program. Anna brings a unique perspective
as a past student participant in Map the System (2016). She went on to
manage and support the on-campus contest at MRU, and is currently
managing the Canada-wide competition. As the Director of the Institute,
James has hosted the competition on the MRU campus, and has taught
a credit course designed around Map the System.
Additional support for this initiative was provided by Julian Cottee and
Gianna Goulding from the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at
the University of Oxford, who manage Map the System globally. The
document was designed by Maria Perez. Many of the video links included
in this document come from the +Acumen Systems Practice course
produced with The Omidyar Group1 . Special thanks to Rob Ricigliano, the
lead course instructor, and the teams at both +Acumen and The Omidyar
Group for granting the use of this content. Finally, thanks to all of the
social impact educators around the world who dedicate their professional
lives to helping people have high-impact careers. Many educators have
designed, suggested, commented on, or contributed to the tools described
in this Guide, and we¥ grateful for their contributions and thankful to be
part of a network committed to sharing systems education.
ABOUT MAP THE SYSTEM
Map the System2 is a global competition that invites students to think
differently about social and environmental change, starting with an
understanding of a challenge and its wider context. Mapping a system
provides an opportunity to think about the context surrounding a challenge
and the many interacting factors that contribute to its development ·hether they are economic forces, political movements, or global trends.
Student Guide to Mapping a System 3
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
Map the System is an initiative of the Skoll Centre for Social
Entrepreneurship, based at the Sa Business School, University
of Oxford. The goal of the Skoll Centre is to maximise the impact of
social entrepreneurship in transforming unjust or unsatisfactory systems
or practices around the world in order to address critical social and
environmental challenges.
Systems-Led Leadership, created and operated by Daniela PapiThornton, is an online resource3 and consulting practice intended to help
practitioners and educators design learning, leadership, and funding
programs that focus on helping future changemakers understand systems.
The Impact Gaps Canvas4, her !ckling Heropreneurship`report, and her
TEDx talk on ¥claiming Social Entrepreneurship are all available online.
The Institute for Community Prosperity connects students with social
impact learning through applied, community-partnered research, creative
knowledge mobilization, and systems-focused education. It is based
at Mount Royal University, an undergraduate liberal arts institution in
Calgary, Canada. The Institute designs and hosts learning experiences to
help students lead transformative change in their communities.
RECODE serves as a funder, capacity builder, and convener, and is a
project of the Montreal-based McConnell Foundation. RECODE supports
the capacity of schools to weave social innovation tools and practices
into the very fabric of campus and community culture. Through working
groups and national gatherings, RECODE brings together individuals
in post-secondary education to learn from each other and amplify their
social impact.
The Trico Charitable Foundation seeks to close gaps in society by
provoking innovation and building capacity in social entrepreneurship.
January, 2019
This report is publicly available for distribution in electronic format, with a limited
number of colour copies available on request. Except where otherwise
noted, this work is available under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. The +Acumen
Systems Practice course produced with The Omidyar Group content is
licensed under a CC-BY-SA 2.0 license.
Student Guide to Mapping a System 4
About this Guide
Welcome to the Student Guide to Mapping a System. This twelvestep Guide, designed for students participating in Map the System, a
post-secondary global competition hosted by the Skoll Centre for Social
Entrepreneurship at the Sa Business School, University of Oxford,
will help walk you (and your team, if you have one) walk through the
process of mapping a system. This Guide will provide you with advice
and additional tools for each step of the process, from picking a social or
environmental challenge, to researching it and presenting your analysis
and ideas (visually, orally, and in writing).
WHO IS THIS GUIDE FOR?
While this Guide was specifically designed for Map the System
participants, it will be helpful for anyone who is passionate about social
change or wants to contribute to tackling a social or environmental
challenge in a local or global context. It is not simply a step-by-step
how-to guide for a student competition. Rather, it is designed to be a tool
that supports learning and action, and introduces readers a range of topics
related to systems practice. It provides a high-level overview of methods
for understanding complex problems and identifying opportunities to
contribute to systems change. We hope that it is also useful for educators
(for whom we are developing a compendium) and those outside academia
!ctivists, entrepreneurs, funders, civil servants, and practitioners ·ho want to understand or tackle a social or environmental issue from a
systems perspective.
This is for every kind
of student, at every
level, in every kind
of field.
Student Guide to Mapping a System 5
There is a lot of buzz about 21st century skill sets, often summarized
as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication. Map
the System asks students to draw on all of these skill sets in a way
that gets students thinking about problem-solving, but specifically in the
context of real-world complexity. Map the System isn just for budding
ïcial entrepreneurs(watch author Daniela Papi-ThorntonàTEDx Talk,
¥claiming Social Entrepreneurshipé. It is for any student who wants
to have a high-impact career, in any field, in any sector. As such, this
Guide is useful for any student, in any discipline, at any stage of study
(from the early stages of your first diploma or degree through graduate
studies and beyond). For example, the winning Map the System team in
2017 was composed of an environmental science undergrad, a business
undergrad, and a medicine student. They each brought unique knowledge,
experience, and important strengths to the team as they engaged with the
challenge of medical waste in hospitals.
If you are a business student”his is different than a traditional social
entrepreneurship pitch competition, and it
is very different than a case competition.
If you are considering starting a social
venture, Map the System is an
opportunity to dive into the nature and
complexity of the problem you are trying
to address. You will need to set your
venture or idea aside during the Map the
System process, as the competition is
not about coming up with a solution. That
said, if you did later move forward with
a venture, the Map the System process
should have helped you develop a better
understanding of your market, the players
with whom you may want to collaborate,
and opportunities to contribute to
systemic change. Many business
ventures (whether social or commercial)
fail because the problem and context is
poorly understood. See the HBR article
èy Social Ventures Need Systems
Thinking¸
If you are a humanities, science,
or social science student…
You may already be familiar with
complexity 4he complex nature of
ecosystems, public policy, human
behaviour, aesthetic judgements,
or social movements, for example.
On the other hand, you may
have less exposure to how this
complexity manifests in the world
around you and the models and
impact of the entities working within
these complex systems. Different
from the passive, static format of
an academic /ster presentation
Map the System is an
opportunity to better understand
(and make understandable for
others) how a system that is
currently resulting in some form
of harm or degradation has the
potential to change.
If you are in a
professional faculty
(e.g. engineering, journalism, law, medicine,
planning, public administration, social work, etc.)…
Students in professional faculties
have opportunities to interact
with the ©eld4hey are going into,
which brings practical knowledge
about who the players are, what
the policies and regulations are,
etc. Having this level of practical
content depth can be an important
strength in this type of project.
Indeed, a nursing undergrad took
top prize in Map the System
2018. Map the System is an
opportunity to think beyond the
system s it is!nd imagine how
transformation might occur 7hat
is bothering you about the status
quo? What might the field look like
that you wish to work in, not the
one that is waiting for you? Where
are the opportunities for change?
The most important prerequisite for Map the System is that you
are interested in caring about something beyond yourself and your
household ).e. in the broader community or world. If you have noticed
something broken or sub-optimal in a system you interact with, even from
a distance, and itàkeeping you awake at night, this is your chance to
learn more about opportunities for change. And if you don yet know
much about your chosen topic, this is your chance to get educated
and invested.
Student Guide to Mapping a System 6
How will this Guide help Map the System entrants
The competition was initially designed around the Impact Gaps Canvas9,
a tool designed by Daniela Papi-Thornton, former Deputy Director of the
Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. In reflecting on the first years
of the competition, Daniela, the other co-authors of this report, and the
current team at the Skoll Centre have realised that the Canvas alone is
not enough to provide students and educators with the tools and questions
needed to ap a system As such, this Guide is designed to provide a
wider breadth of tools, questions, and guidelines for students entering the
competition and educators looking to embed a systems thinking mindset
into their social change curriculum.
Photo by Fisher Studios courtesy of
Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship,
Sa Business School
Student Guide to Mapping a System 7
We know this list of tools and activities is only the tip of the iceberg when
it comes to systems education, and our hope is that you all, as Map the
System participants and educators, will help us continue to refine and
add to these resources over the years.
USING THIS GUIDE
At the end of each
section, we have
also included
recommended
exercises or readings
(ACTIONS),
and optional learning
resources (DIGGING
DEEPER),
for those interested in
learning more about a
particular concept.
Systems change education, much like systems change itself, is
complicated, non-linear, and has no clear starting point or fixed linear path.
In putting words down on paper, we had to pick a !thway&or teaching
this work. The Guide is organized into 12 ôeps but feel free to jump
in wherever you like, or wherever you feel you need the most additional
support. Throughout the document, we have suggested videos to watch,
things to read and tools to try. These are hyperlinked in the online version,
but for those who prefer to print this report, there are endnotes for each
section with the full URL link.
We hope this Guide and the suggested resources will not only help you
navigate the Map the System process, but will also support you in your
own future contributions to systems change.
Overview of this Guide
Understanding
the Challenge
1
Understanding
Systems
3
Individual
or Team?
5
Understanding
the Challenge
2
Identifying
a Challenge
4
Research &
Interview Tips
6
Mapping a
System
Understanding
System Dynamics
and Relationships
7
Considering
Power
8
Solutions
Landscape
Putting
Learning
Into Action
11
Presenting
Your Learning
Identifying Impact
Gaps and Levers
of Change
9
Impact Gaps
& Levers
of Change
10
12
What’s Next?
Lessons
Learned
Student Guide to Mapping a System 8
Contents
Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
About This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
WHO IS THIS GUIDE FOR?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
USING THIS GUIDE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Contents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
WHAT IS MAP THE SYSTEM?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Understanding the Challenge
1. Understanding Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
WHAT IS A SYSTEM?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
WHAT IS SYSTEMS THINKING?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
WHAT IS SYSTEMS-LED LEADERSHIP?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
WHAT IS SYSTEMS MAPPING? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2. Identifying a Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
BEFORE YOU BEGIN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
THE VALUE OF LIVED EXPERIENCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
TIPS FOR IDENTIFYING A CHALLENGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
AVOIDING A SOLUTION IN DISGUISE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
NARROWING YOUR TOPIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3. Individual or Team? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
CONSIDERATIONS IN BUILDING A TEAM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
TIPS FOR FORMING A TEAM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4. Research & Interview Tips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
RESEARCH TIPS FOR SYSTEMS MAPPING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
INTERVIEW TIPS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5. Understanding the Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
INTRODUCTION TO THE IMPACT GAPS CANVAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
CHALLENGE MAPPING VIA THE IMPACT GAPS CANVAS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
EXPLORING ROOT CAUSES: THE ICEBERG MODEL
AND THE CAUSES DIAGRAM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
6. Mapping a System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5Rs MODEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
TRANSITION THEORY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
JOURNEY MAPPING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
FEEDBACK LOOPS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
TIMELINE AND TREND MAPPING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Student Guide to Mapping a System 9
Contents
Understanding System Dynamics and Relationships
7 Considering Power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
UNDERSTANDING POWER DYNAMICS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
8 Solution Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Identifying Impact Gaps and Levers of Change
9 Impact Gaps & Levers of Change. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
IMPACT GAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
LEVERS OF CHANGE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
10 Lessons Learned. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Putting Learning Into Action
11 Presenting your learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
VISUAL MAP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
WRITTEN SUMMARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
PRESENTATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
SPEAKING TIPS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
12 WhatàNext? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
SHARING YOUR LEARNING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
RECEIVING FEEDBACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
WHATàNEXT FOR YOU?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
INNER WORK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
STOP
Footnotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108
For those registered for Map the System with limited time, we recommend
these sections:
‰mpact Gaps Canvas: Review this section and complete the questiongenerating activity (page 46-47).
µRs: Use this tool, or another mapping tool of your choosing. Be sure to map
all five Rs, including relationships, as well as the nature of those relationships,
to help explain the results of the system (page 53).
Œevers of Change: Review this section, including Donella Meadows0iece on
leverage points as it should help you explore %eper0oints and opportunities
for increased impact (page 78).
Do not be overwhelmed by
the length of this Guide!
Our expectation is that some
of you will read it from end to
end in detail, and some will
simply pick and choose the
areas of relevance which are
needed to support your work.
Student Guide to Mapping a System 10
Overview
WHAT IS MAP THE SYSTEM?
Photo by Fisher Studios courtesy of
Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship,
Sa Business School
Social and environmental change are complicated. Mapping is a
way of understanding complexities and identifying possible points of
intervention. Map the System is a one-of-a-kind competition that tasks
students and educators to think differently about social, environmental,
and economic problems. Unlike business plan or pitch competitions,
where participants are rewarded for their solution ideas, Map the System
winners are celebrated for their in-depth understanding of a challenge,
their understanding of what solution efforts are already being tried, and
their identification of gaps or opportunities for increased impact.
Map the System invites participants to use ùstems thinking!s a guiding
approach for addressing global and local challenges. It encourages
students to think about possible high-impact career paths beyond the role
of entrepreneur 4o include the skills of systems building (as described
in Oxford Sa Business School professor Marc VentrescaàTEDx
Talk, /n Be an Entrepreneur, Build Systemsp) or ntrepreneuring¡s a verb (as described by Dr. Pamela Hartigan, former Director of the
Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship in her article, (e Promise
of Entrepreneuringq). The competition is open to students and recent
graduates of participating institutions worldwide.
Student Guide to Mapping a System 11
As of 2018, Map the System is running at over 40 global institutions.
The McConnell FoundationàRECODE Program, also funded by the Trico
Charitable Foundation, supports Map the System across Canada. Other
host institutions operate their own Map the System competitions around
the world, from Melbourne and Cape Town to Boston and Shanghai.
Winners from around the globe convene at Oxford in June and compete
in the Global Final. The competition was started to provide a counterpoint
to the growing number of social business competitions and hackathons.
Those events typically do not ask students to take a systems view of
their chosen challenge, so Map the System was launched to provide
the incentive and impetus for embedding systems thinking and systems
change theory in social entrepreneurship education.
For any student requiring further information on competition details (key
dates and deadlines, judging criteria, etc.), please refer to the Map the
System website12.
What is the goal of Map the System?
One of the reasons Map the System was created was to counter the
often linear, analysis driven, siloed approach to change fueled by some
university business plan competitions. In these competitions, participants
are often asked to try to prove why their efforts are better than their
competitors how their work is innovative and unique, and why their work
is going to lead to large-scale change. To fit into the format of these pitch
competitions, students are asked to present linear stories about how
their innovative idea will create change, often overlooking the big picture
of the social and/or environmental systems and the context related to
their chosen challenge. In a ten-minute pitch about your ïlution you
don have time to focus on systems dynamics or a more nuanced look at
the possible impacts of your efforts, including externalities and complex
relationships, some of which might be more circular than linear. While Map
the System still requires a presentation, and therefore some linearity of
thought as to what to present first and in what order things follow, it was
designed to foster a systems thinking mindset among participants, inviting
a research and presentation process that is focused on system nuances,
which are often overlooked in other university competitions.
Learning Service13, a book co-authored by Daniela Papi-Thornton, is framed
around a certain definition of the Buddhist vajra symbol: ction without
learning is ignorance. Learning without action is selfishnesst.
Competitions related to social change are usually more about trying to
solve problems than they are about understanding them. The ïal/f
these competitions are typically transparent and action oriented; their aim
Student Guide to Mapping a System 12
is not necessarily to encourage an academic process. Instead, they are
designed to propel people through such a process in order to take action.
These competitions tend to be heavy on action but light on learning,
whereas the goal should be a healthy balance of both.
Can you
speed
things up?
Social
Entrepreneur
Syste
ge
an
ms Ch
Credit: Systems-led Leadership.com
2018
The idea of doing research about a challenge or mapping a system can
seem like a much slower and less exciting process than a hackathon
sprint. But, like business plan competitions and hackathons, Map the
System was not designed to simply be an academic exercise. This is not
an academic paper or poster presentation 0rocesses which are heavy
on learning, but light on action. Again, the goal is a healthy balance of
both.
In other words, the goal is not to support you in a research and system
mapping process as an academic exercise or box-ticking curricular
achievement. Nor is the hope that participants will go on to launch future
social ventures. The hope is that, by participating in Map the System,
you will better understand both your chosen challenge as well as
a systems analysis practice, an important 21st century skill, and
then be able to put those skills to use in future high-impact careers
of your choosing. If you use what you learn through this process to
design better-informed future social interventions, find a credible host
organisation for a future internship or job, or use some of the tools and
systems thinking practices in your future work, we, have considered
our job well done.
This phrase also sums up the motivation for Map the System: taking
action and jumping in to ©x! social problem