How well do we collaborate across the system?
System Collaboration begins when the challenge extends beyond the boundaries of a single organisation or industry.
It involves collaboration across industries, sectors, institutions and communities. The automotive industry sits within the wider transport system; the electricity industry within the wider energy system; agriculture within the wider food system; banking within the wider financial and economic system.
System Collaboration can involve businesses, governments, regulators, universities, investors, NGOs, communities and citizens working together on interconnected challenges.
It is particularly important when outcomes depend on changing the structures, rules, incentives, relationships and feedback loops that shape the behaviour of the wider system.
Change the structures, rules and feedback loops and you change the behaviour of the whole system.
The dimensions are nested, but they are not independent. System collaboration still depends on people being able to build trust. Industry collaboration still depends on organisations working across boundaries. Planetary collaboration ultimately depends on millions of individuals, teams and institutions learning to collaborate more effectively.