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đź“… Join the next one.In times of profound disruption and discontinuity, finding ways to work together across traditional boundaries becomes essential for building resilient futures and navigating current crises. In this interactive dialogue and workshopping session Dr. Beth Sawin invites us to address interconnected challenges through radical collaboration and systemic solutions.
“We have to believe what we know”
Elizabeth sawin, multisolving insitute
Multisolving identifies and implements solutions that address multiple challenges at once – from climate change to health, equity, and biodiversity. This approach recognizes that our greatest challenges are interconnected and require breaking down silos both across and within organizations.
You can watch the recording at https://youtu.be/K2h6tXKJXY8?si=AzsTTrqpsJL6HGM2 and find the links and notes below.
Beth Sawin presented multisolving as a three-part framework:
“Multisolving works because of interconnection and interdependence, but multisolving is also for many people a chance to experience aligning our actions with that fundamental understanding of how the world works.”
beth sawin
Sawin’s background in neurogenetics influenced her approach. “I have a PhD in neurogenetics, you know, I focused on one molecule in one cell for years. So, I’m a master of the breaking things into little parts, but I started to see that there is, for some problems, actually a power in bundling problems and making them bigger”.
The concept of Multisolving emerged from observing practitioners: “A lot of the way that we work is to look for bright spots of multisolving. We find it everywhere we look, and we also find it to be the exception, not the rule.”
This resonated with other participants from technical backgrounds. As Doug Nix shared: “I’m in engineering, so breaking down problems into the smallest bites possible is fundamental. I’m so interested in learning about this approach. I’m a systems thinker by nature.”
A key discussion emerged around how multisolving relates to other systems approaches. Karolina Iwa raised crucial questions: “We were wondering, the systemic approach if done well, will always include equity in the world we live in. You need to elevate equity every time anyway, right? That’s the reality of where we are. But we were wondering, what is the difference? What might be the difference between, relational systems change and multisolving?”
She elaborated on relational systems change as being about: “A relationship between humans, you know, like as we come together, in our aspirations, in our needs, in our wants, in our ups and downs, in our difficulties to communicate with each other, in how we fail, in how we disappear rather than show up, and how to be in that together.”
Beth emphasised the complementary nature of these approaches, highlighting how multisolving specifically identifies four key characteristics that often emerge in successful systemic change efforts.
Joan Diamond proposed an important reframing of how we think about equity in these approaches: “Might critical issues such as equity be served as a standard rather than component of problem solving—shift to evaluating all problem solving in the context of a group of ‘values’/standards such as equity, temporal (longevity of change).”
Sawin, with input from researcher Susie Moser, identified four key characteristics:
Workshop participants explored applying Flower to a vacant lot scenario with multiple stakeholders:
Dan Hendry shared a compelling example of multisolving in action: “I have been working on a project since 2012, where we changed the policy for youth to ride high school students to ride transit for free. And then at grade nine, I intervene and train all grade nines. We took it from 28,000 rides to almost 600,000 rides a year, and that, to me, is its environment and health and all the things they get to do in the community, and we’ve seen so many benefits.” This example demonstrates how a single intervention can create multiple cascading benefits across transportation access, environmental impact, education, and community engagement.
We never claim to have invented anything… people who do it often are so grateful just for the word, they may have been working in this way their whole careers Beth Sawin
The Miyawaki Method for Creating Forests https://www.sugiproject.com/blog/miyawaki-method-for-creating-forests
Margie Lee shared her experience with climate action: “Having worked on climate change for decades now… I think it’s really important that we refresh ourselves and think of new approaches or how to be more successful. And certainly, with climate change, the whole idea of equity at first was considered rather radical, like, why not just address the climate and the renewable energy?”
Mary Kohlmann raised important points about local adaptation: “Multisolving solutions are so particular, right? They are really specific to the place and the people and the time in which you figure them out… So, there’s this sense of like, what is transferable from context to context. And a lot of these solutions are not transferable from context to context, because they’re really dependent on, like, the webs of power and relationships and need that are present in a very specific context.”
Tam Lundy reflected on historical parallels: “I started my career in community development back in the early 70s and Community Development at that time wasn’t really well defined. It was basically work with a community to begin where the community is, with how they identify their needs or their goals… What we’re doing now is returning to those values and principles of community building.”
Hillary Swaim raised practical concerns about implementation: “I wonder if you’ve been in groups where you know you can feel in the room, they’re like ‘flower, I don’t know about this’… how do you have recommendations for framing this so that folks who maybe aren’t as starry eyed about it as we are, feel okay?”
Tracy Wong noted connections to other approaches: “This approach reminds of the Design Thinking approach (solving problems using human-centric approach, tackling pain points of different stakeholders). Creativity and co-creation are much needed!”
Kim Montgomerie raised important questions about balancing different forms of knowledge: “I love the idea of using our lived experience and bringing in local traditional knowledge, but I also think that the right can use that to say, you know, to value the influencers over the experts, to maybe say, well, the science might say this, but people’s lived experience says something else.”
“Even after the bike lanes are built, the urban orchards are constructed, the homes are insulated. There’s this rewired system of new connections.”
“As we get into rougher and rougher water, I believe those networks are an incredible source of change and sustenance.”
The framework emphasises:
Multisolving offers a structured yet flexible approach to addressing complex challenges while building more equitable and connected communities.
“Coherence is what holds out the possibility that that smallness is actually enough to matter.”
beth sawin