Systemic change: a reminder

We talk a lot about the "systemic change" needed to combat intolerance and injustice, but we don't pause often enough to remind ourselves what that phrase really means. Doing so can help us all affect change.

It's not just a reference to systems like the police or the criminal justice system. It refers to ... systems. Changing systems leads to systemic change.

Obvious? Yep. Forgotten? Too often.

Any system has inputs and outputs and certain rules governing the inputs and what happens to them. You can control the inputs and the rules that govern them.

When systemic change occurs, it requires us to change one or both of those things. It may feel like an extraordinary act to make the change, but once the change is made, the point is that it becomes the norm that the system acts in a new way. The point is to get beyond the change such that it no longer feels like change. It just feels … normal. It’s not that, because of THIS moment, we did THIS one-off thing, and that made things better. It’s that the inputs and/or the rules governing them have changed the way the system operates, and thus improves the culture.

In other words, systems always do what they’re designed to do. We can design them better. That’s systemic change.

Of course, the systems we design and control are likely not the police or the criminal justice system, or even a nonprofit focused on fighting injustice and intolerance. Instead, the systems we design and control are systems that hire or teach people, systems that produce and deliver content and products and services, and systems for parenting and playing with our kids. Those systems all create some kind of environment as the output. They all contribute in some way to society and to the culture. Are they contributing in a way that makes things worse, keeps them the same, or makes things better? Do we even stop to notice?

Yes, you can work towards a better version of the society-wide systems you don’t control, and you should. But you’ll also make immediate, positive progress towards a better culture if you work on the systems you actually design and thus control. That is still systemic change, instead of a one-off solution, a bandage that falls off.

Let’s use an example.

I host a podcast that dissects other podcasts called 3 Clips. One in 20 episodes so far has dissected a show which features a black host. Mostly, they’ve been white hosts. That’s the input. The rules that govern the inputs are simple: we break down the podcast’s content and podcaster’s abilities using a repeatable episode framework.

We have an input problem. Fix the input, keep the rules, and this system improves.

We could break from the rules of this show’s system, and there’s some benefit to that. We could profile a few black friends who host shows and discuss the current moment and news with them. But that’s not systemic change. Helpful? Yes. Fleeting? Also yes.

Far better is to fix our input problem. We should continue to talk about podcasting and deconstruct great shows, but more of those shows should be hosted by people of color. As producer Tallie Gabriel put it, we can amplify black voices — not just when they’re discussing what it means to be black, but in all things we discuss.

That’s systemic change. We create a system where the outputs create the culture we want to see. We can absolutely do the one-offs, the timely stuff, the special editions, and so forth, but we should also and primarily address the underlying system.

Systemic change to this particular system I control looks less like activism in the popular sense and yet achieves similar aims, striving to create a world that’s more inclusive and equal.

The point is not for each of us to become activists. That's your own decision. The point is to identify the systems YOU own and consider whether they’re creating the environment you want to live in. Make no mistake: You have a voice, and that voice creates certain expectations and understandings and norms among your tribe.

When the norm is a healthier mix of voices, a more inclusive system, that’s real change. In the case of my show, that’s also a damn great podcast!

You can create the change you want to see. Today. Right now. You have recourse, and it needn’t be so dependent on massive systems you don’t control. Yes, work towards changing those, but you can also create lasting change among the systems you actually create and control each day, and ensure they get better each day, too.

That’s systemic change.

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PS: The good folks at the Marshall Project, named for Thurgood Marshall, offer nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism about the criminal justice system in America. You can read and donate on their website.