“The idea of co-benefits [led] them to form new partnerships and look for win-win-win solutions.”Flows are interrelated, and their pace of change varies. So, consider how starting, restarting, decreasing, or stopping specific flows might help you achieve multiple goals. Keep the big picture in mind, and remember that change can generate discomfort.

Think of system change as parts of a dandelion. The roots are the work behind the scenes. The leaves are activities, the blossoms are their result, and the dispersing seeds extend the plant’s impact. Sector-spanners, the moments when opportunities or threats emerge or come into being, often initiate actions. The results depend on doing the necessary background work to identify opportunities and needs and to solidify rules, values, and vision. Cultivate relationships and monitor results. Apply multisolving to support desirable conditions such as economic well-being.

Remember the importance of preparation and dissemination.

Because people have differing values, visions, rules, and worldviews, they may guide different parts of a system in different ways, increasing complexity.“While complex systems are impossible [to] predict or control, we can work with them.”

Rather than trying to control a system, work with it.

To alter a system’s trajectory, change its structure or flows in these ways.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Create a vision of a desired future state – Seize opportunities to move your vision toward reality. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Let values guide the way – Be intentional about which values you pursue.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Create rules to guide your work, like erring on the safe side or prioritizing well-being over money, can steer systems the right way.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Value coherence – When something repeats in different places or scales, it can guide change and help it expand.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Vision, values, and rules have impact – They can influence large systems as influencers use them.</li></ul>

To steer a system, strategically alter its elements.

“Multisolving is the original ‘two for the price of one’ bargain.”Multisolving helps stretch limited resources and satisfy diverse interests. It can enable you to meet current and future goals, advance justice and well-being, and minimize adverse consequences. The approach also promotes appreciation for interconnections, shapes sustainable systems, and puts values into action.

Systems thinking addresses multiple problems at the same time.

“No one has to do everything; we all just have to do something.”Take advantage of fresh opportunities, and preserve your options if new doors open. Make adjustments as needed. Take care of the flows and feedback loops in your organization. Seek stability in how your systems work. Build equity and connections. Recognize that even small actions matter, and hold the long game in mind.

To multisolve in turbulent times, engage in systems thinking.

“Changes in flow rates can drastically alter the behavior of systems, making flows enticing targets for multisolving.”To multisolve, consider the system to change. Consider how you influence its stocks and their flows. Flows – particularly those with a single cause – matter in multisolving because you can direct flow changes to meet more than one desired goal, say storing water and irrigating a field. Assess how much each stock holds, how it changes, if it needs updating, and which stocks hold which resources. Resolve obstacles to change, such as inertia, but be aware that change takes time.

Tap the power of stocks (holding areas) and flows (movement through a stock) to multisolve.

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Systems thinking addresses multiple problems at the same time.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">As problems develop, they follow certain patterns.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Tap the power of stocks (holding areas) and flows (movement through a stock) to multisolve.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Amplify feedback loops that support solutions.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Rather than trying to control a system, work with it.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">To steer a system, strategically alter its elements.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Remember the importance of preparation and dissemination.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">To multisolve in turbulent times, engage in systems thinking.</li></ul>

Key Ponders

“Some problems, whose consequences are extremely dangerous, have well-documented solutions... waiting to be implemented. Biodiversity loss and climate change come to mind…There is a mismatch in power between those working for change and those who resist it, and that delays the response to the crisis.”Some problems worsen when you solve – or ignore – other problems.

As problems develop, they follow certain patterns.

“New technologies spread via reinforcing feedback. The more people who install a new technology…the more likely new customers are to give it a try. The more units are manufactured, the more the price falls, leading to more demand and even more manufacturing.”When you plan a multisolving effort, consider how feedback will affect it. Trouble can arise when the processes that dampen reinforcing feedback stop working, such as when cell growth mutates into cancer. Reinforcing feedback does not exist in isolation.

Amplify feedback loops that support solutions.

<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Recognize the systems’ influences – Use analogies to familiar systems and behavior of unfamiliar ones.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Engage ethics – Err on the cautious side, and seek consent from those whom the systems affect.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Learn from outcomes.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Use computer programs or a collective experience to predict future system behavior.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Get better at dealing with a lack of certainty.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Consider time – Consider long- and short-term goals and consequences.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Consider boundaries – Be strategic about a system’s physical or conceptual space. Expanding it can bring in fresh resources, while limiting it can fire up new approaches.</li></ol>

Hoe to multisolve in complex systems:

Creating Systems Change in a Fractured World

For most of Elizabeth Sawin’s career, she was not a multisolver. Instead, she worked on a single, albeit immensely important problem: climate change. Despite tremendous effort—long hours of teaching, attending conferences, publicizing analysis—at the end of the day, she felt like she was chasing her tail. Unless people began to recognize the multitude of unexpected benefits from ratcheting down emissions, climate change would remain a losing political issue. That experience, along with the guidance of leaders in systems thinking and racial justice, convinced her that the world’s thorniest problems may be easier to tackle together than one by one. That’s multisolving: using a single investment of time or money to solve many problems at the same time. (Reduced fossil fuel use = improvements in climate, health, equity, economics, and more.) While the idea of killing two birds with one stone (or “filling two needs with one deed”) is age-old, and the notion of co-benefits in policy-making has been around for years, Multisolving addresses the current mismatch between complex, deeply intertwined societal issues and our siloed approach to them. This unique resource is for local school boards that need revenue for their students but don’t want to overtax low-income seniors. It is for nonprofits working to reduce food waste and combat the root causes of hunger while increasing racial justice. It is for seaside communities that can protect themselves from flooding while also improving biodiversity with a living coastline. It may also be for you: doing the work you know is imperative but that is sometimes overwhelming, a tiny drop in a swirling ocean. Multisolving can’t promise a list of “fifty simple things to make everything OK.” What it does offer are strategies to build solidarity between diverse groups, overcome powerful interests, and create lasting change that benefits us all.