Sustainability transitions often take place through great, transformative changes (even if done incrementally). To become effective change managers, the first step is to identify the problem. Not everyone always sees a problem as a problem; some people might actually enjoy or be benefitted by the current situation. These individuals may be change resistant, or even obstructionist. In order to explain what is problematic about a complex situation, a change manager can first illustrate the contributing factors and systematic outcomes as a causal chain. A depiction of the causal relationships between the mentalities, behaviors, and structures that systematically lead to benefits of some affected/interested party (AIP) groups at the expense of others is a “problem map”.
Prompt: Select a community sustainability problem of interest to you or one from an organizational context, such as in business, government, non-profit, or education. Use the Change Management Examples provided diagram (* attached as a ppt*) as a model to map your chosen problem, replacing the generic categories in the text boxes with your problem’s contributing factors and outcomes. Refer to the reference in the Learning Materials (attached as files) for more information about each factor.
In addition, write a brief narrative (no more than a page) to describe how the problem manifests (how it happens). Tell your audience (someone who sees your diagram, who is likely to be experiencing the situation) what the diagram is depicting. That is, explain the root causes, how they influence the actors, which activities the actors do or which infrastructures they build, and how they impact AIPs. Explain the impacts by identifying the groups harmed and benefited in terms of Wiek’s five dimensions of impacts.
