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Panarchy

Panarchy helps groups understand how change spreads across interconnected systems and levels. 
What Is Made Possible
  • Systemic awareness: Panarchy enables participants to see how their work is embedded in larger systems - and how those systems influence one another.
  • Strategic leverage: By visualizing interdependencies, people can identify small changes at one level that can unlock big shifts at another.
  • Cross-level innovation: It reveals how local actions can scale up and how higher-level shifts can release resources or remove barriers for teams working below.
  • Opportunity windows: With a better grasp of Ecocycle dynamics, groups can spot the right timing and conditions for spreading innovations across boundaries and levels.
  • Collective insight: It fosters shared understanding of complex challenges and helps align actions across teams, departments, or even organizations.

  • Time needed

    120 minutes

  • Preparation

    1. Miro Board (online) or paper (F2F) and Panarchy worksheet
    2. Split into smaller groups (for 1-2-4-all) - prepare the rooms online in Teams

  • How to start

    1. Invite participants to identify what is contributing to the existence of a challenge at levels above and below them.
    2. Ask them to specify different strategies and opportunities for change within each level and across multiple levels.

  • Step-by-step and timing

    1. Introduce the idea of the Panarchy (and the Ecocycle if needed). Show an example (see on the right) (5 min)
    2. Invite participants to work individually to generate the set of system levels that influence the spread of their ideas/innovation in three steps:
      • First step alone to make a list of factors by asking, “What are the smallest-to-the-largest factors influencing your/our chances for success?” (5 min)
      • Second step in pairs to “translate” the factors into levels and create labels for each level (4–7 levels) (10 min)
      • Third step in groups of four to compare their levels and finalize their chart with Post-its. (10 min)
    3. If there are multiple groups of four, merge into a single chart (10 min)
    4. In groups of four, reflect on: “On which levels have attention and resources been invested to date? Which levels have been neglected? What do I/we know about the status and dynamics in play at the different levels?” (10 min)
    5. In the whole group, share reflections from a few groups. (5 min)
    6. Ask groups of four to explore one chosen level in depth with the Ecocycle. Ask, “At this level, what is going on right now and what actions are being taken for the challenge that our innovation addresses?” Create a rough draft of Ecocycle assessments for this level. (15 min)
    7. Each group presents the Ecocycle assessment of their level briefly. (10 min)
    8. In small groups, brainstorm a list of obstacles and opportunities in regard to efforts to spread ideas/innovations. Ask, “Looking up and down the levels, what opportunities and obstacles do you see for changes across the levels? What windows for new ideas are opening above? What resources are flowing downward from creative destruction unfolding above? What small-scale developments from below are disrupting the level above?” Encourage the groups have fun. (15 min)
    9. Prioritize the opportunities and obstacles that emerge. (10 min)
    10. For each opportunity and obstacle on your list, create one first-action step using 1-2-4 by asking, “What action can you take immediately to influence levels above and below you?” And, “Who do you know that has influence in more than one level simultaneously?” (10 min).
    11. Share action steps with the whole group by placing Post-it notes on each level of the large Panarchy chart. (15 min).
    12. Invite the group to take a close look at the chart. Use What, So What, Now What? to make sense of and prioritize all of the possible next steps. 15 min.

  • Hints

    1. Use 1-2-4-All for all or most of the steps even if it feels like a chore: the objective is to identify ALL opportunities and obstacles at ALL levels!

  • Examples of use

    1. Visualization how we can influence changes at different scales
    2. Identify a mix of strategies at multiple levels to move transformation efforts forward
    3. Create an opportunity for people from many different levels to work together
    4. Identify people that span levels and can help the group move forward

  • Link with other Liberating Structures

    Link with:

    1-2-4-All

    Celebrity Interview

    Ecocycle planning

    Social network webbing

    What 3 debrief

    What I need from you

  • Link to Liberating Structures page

    Panarchy

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