Start thinking in systems, start changing the world

*Everything* is connected. If we want to change the future, we have to stop solving problems in isolation and start changing the patterns that create them.

If we want to survive this century, we have to start thinking differently. Not just more deeply. More systemically.

Because most of what we’ve been taught encourages us to think in straight lines. Problem, solution. Cause, effect. Action, reward. We’re trained to isolate variables, treat symptoms, and keep moving. But climate collapse does not behave like that. Nor does ecological breakdown. Nor does inequality. Nor war, housing crises, debt, or depression. These are not isolated problems. They are symptoms of a system breaking down, or more accurately, a system doing exactly what it was designed to do.

So if we want to change the outcomes, we have to change how we see the system itself.

Systems thinking means understanding the relationships between things. It means recognising feedback loops, unintended consequences, leverage points, and tipping points. It means seeing not just the parts, but the patterns. It’s why the climate crisis is not just about emissions. It’s about energy, economics, land, power, inequality, colonisation, food, trade, consumption, and culture. And it’s all happening at once.

That’s hard to hold. Especially when most people were never taught how to think this way. Our education systems, our media, and our politics reward reductionism. They cut reality into manageable chunks. They give us simple villains and simple answers. Complexity is uncomfortable. That discomfort is often why people resist it.

It’s easier to believe the problem is just plastic straws, or just gas stoves, or just "human nature". But it isn’t. Those are threads. The system is the whole fabric.

We need a different lens. A different story. A story that helps us see the roots, not just the leaves. A story that reveals how environmental destruction is connected to capitalism, how capitalism is connected to colonialism, how colonialism is connected to profit, and how profit is maintained by political choices that benefit the few at the cost of the many.

This shift in thinking is not just intellectual. It is emotional, even spiritual. It requires grief, unlearning, discomfort, and humility. It requires falling in love with a more complicated truth. But it also opens up something powerful, a deeper clarity, a sense of agency, and a feeling of being connected to a larger movement.

Because systems thinking alone is not enough. We need systems doing.

We need people who can hold complexity without being paralysed by it. People who can map power and then organise to interrupt it. People who understand that changing one part of the system rarely works unless we also shift the conditions that created it.

So how do we get better at it?

First, get curious. Whenever you see a crisis, ecological, social, or economic, ask not just what is happening, but why, who benefits, who is harmed, and what feeds the pattern. What incentives are in place? What histories shaped it? What stories are we told to make it feel normal?

Second, find feedback loops. Climate collapse is full of them. Melting ice makes seas warmer, which melts more ice. Inequality reduces access to education, which deepens inequality. But feedback loops can also be positive. Mutual aid builds trust, which builds more participation. Bold action inspires others, which leads to more action. Look for the loops. Interrupt the bad ones. Strengthen the good.

Third, find leverage points. Not everything needs to be changed at once. Systems often have weak spots, small changes that trigger large shifts. A successful union campaign in a key industry. A change in investment rules that pulls billions from fossil fuels. A policy that changes access to land, energy, or food. Movements win when they understand where to push.

Fourth, connect the dots. That means linking struggles. If you are fighting deforestation, connect it to Indigenous land rights. If you are fighting inequality, connect it to debt and trade. If you are building local food systems, connect them to climate justice and health. No more silos. No more single-issue politics. Everything is connected. Our strategies must be too.

Fifth, remember that you are a node in the system. You are not outside of it. Your actions ripple outward. You influence others. You can model different values. You can make new choices, support better systems, build new institutions, disrupt harmful ones, and support others doing the same. That is power. Use it.

We are not going to fix this by tinkering at the edges. We need to shift how we think, how we act, and how we relate. The good news is that systems are built by people, and they can be unbuilt and remade. Culture can shift. Economics can shift. Power can shift. But only if we stop thinking in isolated problems and start thinking in systems.

This is a moment for systems doers. For big picture vision and grounded action. For courage and complexity, together. That’s how we build a future worth living for. Not by fixing one thing at a time. But by changing the whole story.