9 Essential Systems Change Tools You Should Know

Throughout my journey as a changemaker and systems change facilitator earning recognition from Forbes (30 Under 30), UNEP, UNESCO, and the Swiss government, I’ve led workshops all across Europe. From sustainable construction in Zurich, SDG Alliance facilitation in Liechtenstein, to speaking and teaching in Vienna, Maastricht, and community festivals.

In those rooms, these tools consistently stood out in helping participants diagnose complex challenges, align inner and outer transformation, co-create strategy, and identify a system's leverage points. Each tool carries lived nuance, tested approaches, and layered understanding: from mindset shifts to operational breakthroughs. Here’s my curated toolkit for changeworkers, grounded in practice and purpose.

What is Systems Change? Why These Tools Matter

Systems change confronts root causes (not just symptoms) by transforming structures, customs, mindsets, rules, norms, beliefs, mindsets, values, power dynamics, and policies through intentional collective collaboration. It’s about shifting patterns and reconfiguring ineffective existing systems.

For example, mass deforestation is a visible environmental problem. But underneath the problem lies financial incentives, cultural values and norms, policies, politics, and several other structural paradigms. Changing this system requires vast amounts of influence, capital, differing priorities, shifting norms, and more - which is why it continues to feel like a never-ending problem (even though there have been many wins in the past decades).

Systems thinkers are invited to notice both surface-level events and deeper cultural forces - and tools are essential to navigate this complexity. They help guide the path from cognition to action, revealing where change can stick.

1. Iceberg Model

What it is: A useful tool to reflect on the complex social or environmental challenges we care about and seek to address. Instead of focusing on an issue’s symptoms (such as large amounts of plastic in the ocean or mass deforestation), the Iceberg Model allows changemakers to identify and start analyzing the many structural pillars that produce the visible symptoms, such as laws and policies, culture, norms, incentives, subsidies, etc.

Why it matters: It’s the entry-point for systems awareness. By asking why multiple times, changeworkers uncover deeper patterns and beliefs that, if shifted, can yield systemic openings for meaningful change.

How to use it:

1. Identify a concrete symptom (ex. sea level rise). In other words, why should someone care?
   
2. Uncover the underlying causes, meaning the structures, processes, policies, rules, and money flows leading to that symptom.
   
3. Go one level deeper and see what dynamics of power, privileges, relationships, and traditions exist underneath those structures, rules, and norms.
   
4. Now, find the mindsets, values, belief systems, and societal paradigms that fuel the dynamics of power, privileges, relationships, and traditions.
   

From personal changemaking experience, I know the Iceberg Model is powerful. In 2022 at Haus Gutenberg in Liechtenstein, I facilitated a systems change workshop for the SDG Allianz Liechtenstein. I led the group’s understanding of the basics of systems thinking, applied the Iceberg Model, and then mapped the ecosystem behind Switzerland and Liechtenstein’s roles in working towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It was a powerful eye-opening experience not only for myself, but also for the attendees who discovered new connections, concepts, and relationships.

2. Ecosystem Mapping & 5R Framework

What it is: Typically, before beginning the 5R Framework, I recommend starting with ecosystem mapping. Ecosystem mapping is the process of capturing, on a sheet of paper or digitally, the key elements of the system you’re seeking to understand better and potentially intervene in. It is a starting point to realising how a system functions. Once you have that mapped out, now you can move on to the 5R Framework. This is a useful approach to understanding the main elements governing a system. The 5 Rs are: Roles, Relationships, Resources, Rules, and Results.

Why it matters: This joint exercise shows influence, assets, missing voices, and entry points, helping you move from intuition to clarity about where interventions would matter most. Ecosystem mapping helps you challenge assumptions, identify key stakeholders, see the relationships between actors, and gain greater clarity on the context that a system exists within. The 5R Framework helps you visualize a system’s effects, inflowing and outflowing resources, visible and invisible rules, interactions and connections between actors, and formal and informal roles that the stakeholders and actors take on and don’t take on.

How to use it:

• First, create your ecosystem map (if you’re digitally-inclined, use a tool like Miro).
  
• Using that fundamental knowledge, now start identifying the 5Rs and their connections.

I facilitated a multistakeholder workshop for the city of Zurich on the topic of sustainable construction, where we supported them in mapping the ecosystem and using the 5R Framework in order to identify potential leverage points (more on these later).

Patrick Jiranek, Coach, Consultant, and former Project Lead for Climate at the city of Zurich, shared these kind words:

“Nora’s facilitation style is akin to a master conductor leading an orchestra. A perfect example of this was the workshop she co-moderated with the city of Zurich, where she skillfully brought together stakeholders from net zero building technologies and initiatives. The result was greater than the sum of its parts, with the workshop culminating in a well-tuned community, resonating with impact.”

3. Transformation Loop: Inner ⇄ Outer Work

What it is: A reflective practice linking inner culture (like values and habits) and outer systems (like strategy and operations), and often depicted circularly. The Transformation Loop can be used as a reflection tool by an individual or a collective to uncover deeper elements of yourself, your team, or the organisation you operate within and your whole ecosystem through the lens of inner and outer work. What is being done on the ‘inner’ side of your team and organisation for instance - is it aligned with what you collectively hope to achieve on the outside? Are the values of your programs and projects embodied within the organisation?

I created this systems change tool after realizing that my own trauma, patterns, habits, and unhealthy drivers were not only affecting me negatively - they also impacted my team and people around me. 

Why it matters: Strategies grounded in misaligned culture or values tend to stall or lead to conflict or tension, thus slowing down the work that you and your team want to accomplish. Making sure you and your team (if applicable) are aligned with the organisation is crucial.

I believe the inner work and outer work go hand-in-hand if we seek to create change in the world. Some may dwell only in the inner work, and fear confronting themselves to reality and actually trying something. People who completely exit the system and focus only on their own well-being also fall into this category.

Others may be solely focused on the outer work, launching new project upon project, always in the ‘doing’ energy’ - never pausing to reflect and learn. Or perhaps thinking the challenge has ‘nothing to do with me’, and that others are the problem.

For me, it’s clear that it’s a loop. One will never be complete without the other. The inner work always informs the outer work, and vice-versa. No person, team, or organisation can ever activate its full potential without consciously practising both.

How to use it:

You could use this canvas as part of a process, or as a standalone tool. It could be introduced as a general framework to guide reflection, or as a specific tool to work through as individuals or a team. A team may, for example, use it to reflect on their collective ‘inner condition’ and to identify which leverage point or layer they’ll work on first (ex. clarifying the roles or guiding principles).

You have several options:

• Take the version with or without the guiding keywords and print it out, then replicate it on a flipchart or whiteboard
• Save the image and replicate it in a tool like Miro to fill it out collaboratively with your team 

I often use this tool in workshops to reflect about how our inner culture is aligned with and supports the impact we hope to have or not. As a team, organisation, or even as an individual.

For example, at the 2021 Tage der Utopie festival in Austria, I gave a workshop and guided leadership teams to reflect on the kind of leadership needed in this day and age using the Transformation Loop model.

Hear the talk I gave on transformation loops. For English, turn out auto-generated English subtitles.

Need personalized expert guidance on how to best use and integrate these tools?
As an experienced and accomplished systems change leader, I proudly provide custom advice, guidance, and support to aspiring changemakers, activists, and social entrepreneurs. This journey is already difficult - check out how we can work together!

4. Multistakeholder Dialogue

What it is: In multistakeholder workshops, relevant stakeholders from a specific system (for example, stakeholders linked to the healthcare system) come together around a specific calling question and topic to explore it in-depth together, learn more about different perspectives and experiences, get a deeper understanding of the topic, and identify leverage points for change. Ideally, multi-stakeholder workshops take place as a series of events, where the same group comes together several times to explore relevant questions. The systemic understanding that emerges through the workshops can then be used to launch a larger multi-stakeholder process (for example a Social Innovation Lab), to develop prototype solutions with the potential to contribute to a systemic change.

Why it matters: Systems aren't changed by one voice - they shift through collective intelligence, trust, and shared understanding. The challenges we’re facing are too multilayered and complex to be addressed in a meaningful way just by one organisation or even one sector.

How to use it:

• Plan your multistakeholder workshop: Get clear on the scope, why the stakeholders should attend, the structure of the workshop, what the stakeholders will get out of the experience, and potential suggestions for taking the discussion further after the workshop ends.
• Invite relevant stakeholders: Make sure the people you invite are diverse, are closely relevant to the system being discussed, and have power when it comes to implementing change post-workshop.
• Define roles: Usually there’s one person who’s the convener and who holds the longer term intention and calling question - we call this person the Catalyst. For a multistakeholder workshop, two facilitators are needed who are trained and experienced in hosting this kind of event.
• Implement your workshop (or workshop series): Depending on your topic and on your goals, different tools and methods can be used, for example system mapping, stakeholder interviews, sensing journeys or dialogue tools such as triads, fishbowl, circle dialogue or dialogue walks. Depending on your focus, participants can also work in smaller groups on specific subtopics for parts of the workshops. To facilitate the workshop, I recommend using the World Cafe method or the Art of Hosting and Harvesting method.
• Follow up and inform on the next steps: After each workshop, make sure to inform your stakeholders on the main insights and next steps, in order to ensure transparency and keep the engagement high.
• Time needed: Ideally 3 hours per multi-stakeholder workshop (minimum 2.5 hours).
• Number of participants: Depending on the design and focus, ideally 15 to 25 (but also larger numbers are possible).
  
  

In 2023 in Zurich, through a series of one-day workshops titled the Protein Lab, we brought together key stakeholders (farmers, scientists, consumers, and policymakers) to discuss how our food system can support the transition towards sustainable protein sources. Alongside the Bern University of Applied Sciences, I used the Social Innovation Laboratories model of change to look at the root causes of complex social problems rather than just treating the symptoms. We wanted to understand the factors that are hindering the much-needed shift away from traditional agriculture.

5. Leverage Points

What they are: According to Donella Meadows, leverage points are places within a complex system (a corporation, an economy, a living body, a city, an ecosystem) where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything. For example, rules (i.e. policies, laws, and regulations) are high leverage points because they inherently have a lot of power and outsized effects.

Why it matters: As changemakers, we often have limited resources (whether that’s time, money, or team members). So to maximize the effects of your work, it’s important to fully understand where your energy and resources would be best put to use. We also don’t want to be wasting our precious time, so if you can work on high leverage points instead of low leverage points, the greater change you’ll see from your efforts. Although keep in mind that high leverage points (like rules and regulations) often take the most work and effort to change.

How to use it:

• Use Ecosystem Mapping and the 5R Framework to draw causal loop diagrams or systems maps.
  
• Highlight leverage opportunities (ex. shifting subsidy policy vs. behavior nudging).
  
• Prototype interventions (ex. a pilot tax on single-use plastics).

Based on lessons learned by Jerold Sinnamon, Executive Vice President of Griffin Health Services Corporation, you should keep in mind that the appropriate leverage point is far removed in time and space from the problem or the symptom of the problem. Obvious leverage points tend to never be real leverage points. And when the appropriate leverage point is found, things often get worse before they get better. On the other hand, when a leverage point is ineffective, things will get better in the short term but then get worse over time.

Remember the multistakeholder workshop on sustainable construction I facilitated for the city of Zurich? Well, we also used leverage points to find and hone in on critical areas of potential, meaningful change. While not very intuitive to pinpoint, leverage points are a useful way to gain confidence and clarity on next steps.

6. Behavioural Approaches + Systems Thinking Combo

What it is: At its core, this tool is an Integration of human behavior models (i.e. motivation, ability, trigger) into systems change. After we’ve identified leverage points, actually implementing change requires changing behaviours. Behavioural approaches can change systems by influencing the patterns of relationships within them (i.e. between key actors). A common behavioral approach, Fogg Behaviour Model, argues that it takes awareness, motivation, and ability to actually change behaviour in a consistent and meaningful way. Without using behavioural approaches, systems change doesn’t take into account the human nature element of changing systems and therefore suffers. Without systems thinking, behavioural approaches can still change behaviour within a system but in doing so run the risk of producing undesired outcomes (i.e. potential leverage points or relationships that don’t have the potential to positively impact the system).

Why it matters: Systems design and change are inherently human-based, meaning you can’t meaningfully affect a system without considering human behaviour. To especially enact long-term change (which we all want), incorporating behavioural approaches into your strategy and action plan is necessary.

How to use it:

• Embed aligned motivations and behavioural triggers into your system design (ex. social comparison data card for energy use or financial incentives for recycling plastic, glass, or aluminum).
  
• Ask yourself: “Who will act? What barriers do they face? What prompts would motivate and/or trigger them?”
  
• Prototype and test the effects of behavioural nudges like incentives, reminders, norms signaling, etc.
  

In 2023, I did this work in Austria for the City of Vienna at the Convention4U (a gathering for all the convention and conference industry). I facilitated two workshops about transformation and systemic change, discussing possible explanations of why we’re massively off-track with the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and providing insights into phenomena such as symptom fighting or the iceberg model. We explored how the meeting industry holds the potential to sustainably transform the way we interact and exchange within and across sectors, and thereby contribute to a more meaningful meeting culture.

7. Natural Step’s 5-Level Framework

What it is: Natural Step is a Sweden-based NGO founded in 1989 and currently has many team members across more than 50 countries. The organization’s famous strategic framework, 5-Level Framework, is an efficient way of planning and decision making for complex systems. It comprises five levels: 1) System, 2) Success, 3) Strategic Guidelines, 4) Actions and 5) Tools. As a framework, it helps to see the big picture of the workings of our ecological and social systems, current trends, how we as a society negatively influence the functioning of the socio-ecological system (System), what systems conditions should be met for it not to be negatively influenced (Success), and how to strategically plan towards that (Strategic Guidelines) with prioritised actions (Actions) through selecting and applying the appropriate tools for those (Tools).

Why it matters: This framework is a highly useful way to organize systems thinking and information, so that changemakers can be more clear and strategic. It also helps put systems into the proper, accurate context in which they exist. Used in conjunction with other frameworks and tools, this framework provides a clearer picture of your steps forward.

How to use it:

• System: This means anything to do with a given system. A funnel approach is commonly used at this stage - the idea that we’re currently operating in a system where natural resources and ecosystem services are decreasing while demands on these resources and services are increasing, due to population growth and increasing consumption patterns.
• Success: Success is how you define it based on your chosen system, however, it’s typically defined as a sustainable society.
  
• Strategic Guidelines: This level refers to the brainstorming, planning, and decision making you do when considering how to meet your goals. A commonly used approach at this stage is backcasting from principles - first looking at reaching your goals in the future and then determining what specific actions should be taken first to start working toward those.
• Actions: These are the concrete, practical steps taken on the path to success.
• Tools: To reach success, these are the tools necessary to manage and implement the actions, keeping in mind your strategic guidelines. These tools can be any model, framework, book, training, workbook, course, software, etc. that you believe is necessary.

8. DSRP Principles: Identity, Systems, Relationships, Perspectives

What it is: Originally created by Derek Cabrera, the DSRP principles are as follows: 

• Distinctions Rule: Any idea or thing can be distinguished from the other ideas or things it is with.
• Systems Rule: Any idea or thing can be split into parts or lumped into a whole.
• Relationships Rule: Any idea or thing can relate to other things or ideas.
• Perspectives Rule: Any thing or idea can be the point or the view of a perspective.

At Parayma, we understand them as foundational building blocks that help changeworkers see complexity more clearly and engage with it more effectively. By practicing DSRP in systems thinking, we begin to shift from linear, fragmented thinking to an integrative, whole-systems view of the world.

Why it matters: The purpose of DSRP is to provide a flexible mental framework that enables deeper understanding of both the systems we are embedded in and the systems we are trying to change. It offers a meta-cognitive toolset for changeworkers navigating complex challenges - whether they're in education, climate justice, governance, social entrepreneurship, or social innovation. Rather than prescribing what to think, DSRP invites us to examine how we think, helping us to become more conscious, reflective, and intentional in our approach to transformation.

In the realm of systems change, surface-level interventions often fall short because they address symptoms rather than root causes. DSRP helps us break that pattern. By encouraging us to make clear distinctions, recognize system boundaries, map relationships, and explore multiple perspectives, it equips us to identify leverage points that might otherwise go unnoticed. It's a way of thinking that mirrors the complexity of the world and invites us to design interventions that are both strategic, systemic, and complex enough to impact complex systems. For changeworkers feeling overwhelmed by the scale of today's crises, DSRP can be an anchor - a way to navigate without losing direction or scope.

How to use it:

1. Map the System: Start with Distinctions (D)

   - Choose a focal issue within the system you're working on (ex. community healthcare access).

    - List elements that constitute the system (identities) and clearly name what they are not (others).

   • Example: “clinic” vs. “non‑clinic healthcare providers,” and “urban residents” vs. “rural residents.”

   - Reflect on what those distinctions include and who or what they exclude - this frames boundaries and surfacing hidden voices.

2.  Reveal Structure: Organize with Systems (S)

   - For each distinction, ask:

   • “Is this a whole made of smaller parts, or part of something bigger?”

   - Deconstruct (breakdown) and construct (aggregate) components.

   • Example: split “clinic” into administration, care teams, outreach.

   - This process helps you see leverage points (ex. improving administrative workflow or strengthening neighborhood-clinic coordination).

3.  Uncover Dynamics: Explore Relationships (R)

   - Connect your parts and wholes - how do they interact?

    - Draw arrows showing:

   • “Who influences whom? Who reacts to changes?”

   • Example: outreach team → patient awareness → health-seeking behaviours.

   - Observe feedback loops - are there reinforcing or balancing actions?

   - Highlight where weak or harmful connections occur (ex. communication breakdowns).

4.  Include Stakeholder Voices: Shift Perspectives (P)

   - Identify different points of view:

   • “Who’s the “seer” (ex. rural patient, policymaker, provider)?”

   • “What’s the “view” (ex. cost, convenience, cultural safety)?”

   - Visualize maps from those perspectives—introduce multiple layers:

   • Example: clinic operations vs. patient journey vs. policy pathway.

   - Ask:

   • “What am I missing by staying in this perspective?”

   • “What assumptions should I question?” 

5. Iterate the Cycle: Interweave DSRP

   - Apply DSRP together:

   • A relationship (R) becomes a distinct element (D); a part (S) may be a viewpoint (P).

   - Revisit distinctions, systems, relationships, and perspectives again and again.

   - This fractal loop deepens your insight and reveals emerging patterns.

6.  Identify Leverage & Design Interventions

   - With DSRP in place, ask:

   • “Where do changes in boundaries, connections, or voices yield meaningful shifts?”

   - Prototype interventions:

   • Adjust who’s included (D), reconfigure teams (S), strengthen weak links (R), elevate underrepresented views (P).

   - Continuously test and reflect - observe how the system adapts.

   - Measure changes to understand DSRP’s efficacy.

6. The Three Horizons Model

What it is: An efficient way of managing complex change. It facilitates out-of-the-box engagement with future possibilities by breaking down long-term planning into three separate phases: the present, the transition, and the future. This model helps to visualize the interwoven nature and connections of present decisions and an idealized future. You can also think of the model in this way:

• The Present: Our dominant system - efficient but increasingly unsustainable.
• The Transition: A transitional space filled with innovations and experiments.
• The Future: The desired, envisioned future - emergent systems aligned with deeper values, cohesion, and sustainability.

Why it matters: This model matters because it brings clarity to complex long-term planning. By mapping where we currently are, where transformation is bubbling up, and what we aspire to do, changeworkers create a shared language across different mindsets: the task-focused, the entrepreneurial, and the visionary. It surfaces signals of future potential and uncovers pathways to shift power, purpose, and policy. And in doing so, it transitions planning from reactive problem-solving into generative and proactive co-creation - a leap in thinking that’s essential for deep and lasting transformation.

How to use it:

1. Frame the Challenge & Stakeholders
1. Gather your circle of related stakeholders with invested interest. Then define the specific system you want to explore with this group.
2. Ask them:
• “Which transformative innovations can be scaled?”
• “Which parts of the present system should be protected or retired?”
• “How can we prototype and test the future, envisioned system in safe-to-fail experiments?”
2. Map the Three Horizons
1. The Present: List currently dominating structures, norms, incentives, and what’s working/declining.
2. The Transition: Spotlight emerging experiments or disruptors challenging the present, fostering novelty, and disrupting existing structures.
3. The Future: Envision bold futuristic possibilities - values-led, regenerative, and sustainable ways of living or organizing.
3. Surface Tensions & Opportunities
1. Explore how the transition acts as both midwife and mirror, and how it extends the present in some cases and drives futuristic emergence in others. Look for “pockets of the future” already in action today.
4. Prototype, Learn, & Adapt
1. Launch small-scale, safe-to-fail pilots to test transition options, solutions, and changes. Monitor feedback, adapt, and surface new signals. Use these cycles to calibrate shits from the present -> the transition -> the future in organic, co-evolving ripples.
5. Build Shared Stewardship
1. Use your experiences and the model’s narrative as a generative tool to orient multiple stakeholders to a shared future, therefore distributing ownership and responsibility while increasing accountability. This fosters stewardship across sectors, industries, geographies, ethnicities, viewpoints, and levels of power.

Bringing It All Together: Combined Application Matters

These tools aren’t standalone - they’re much more powerful, impactful, and helpful when used in combination. In Zurich, we layered Multistakeholder Dialogue → Ecosystem Mapping → 5R Framework → Leverage Points in a single day, guiding participants from diagnosis to policy recommendations. In Liechtenstein, we moved from the Iceberg Model to Ecosystem Mapping, helping stakeholders gain a newfound sense of clarity and understanding for Switzerland and Liechtenstein’s roles in working towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

These are just a couple of examples of how these tools can and should be used in collaboration with each other to really dig deep to the roots and causes of a system, establish the most effective and impactful points of potential change, and create a strong and strategic plan to reaching a positive, meaningful, and lasting systemic impact.

Need personalized expert guidance on how to best use and apply these tools to your chosen system?
As an experienced and successful systems change leader, I proudly provide custom advice, guidance, and support to aspiring changemakers, activists, and social entrepreneurs. This journey is already difficult - check out how we can work together to make it easier!

Final Word: The Path of Impact

Tools are powerful, but only when wielded within aligned intention, values, and integrity. The real transformations come when you layer personal reflection, collaborative brain power, strategic visioning and clarity, behavioural principles, and aligned action on top of using these tools.

And sometimes using the tools doesn’t work how you want it to - don’t be rigid and tied to your expectations. Allow for flexibility, personal change, and creativity. Remember that change and adapting is normal and, quite frankly, expected. 

As I often remind changeworkers: start small, maintain systems awareness, and bring your full (inner and outer) self to the process. That self-awareness and cohesion is the seed of transformational impact and your systems change journey.

Resources & Further Reading

• Catalyst 2030’s What is Systems Change?
• Stanford Social Innovation Review’s Systems Change: Making the Aspirational Actionable
  
• Parayma’s The Transformation Loop of Inner & Outer Work
• Parayma’s The Iceberg Model
• Parayma’s Ecosystem Mapping
  
• Donella Meadows’ Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System
  
• World Café Hosting Toolkit
• Art of Hosting & Harvesting Methods
• Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisory’s Shifting Systems Case Studies