The SPIRAL of systems leadership
The SPIRAL of systems leadership
April 22, 2025
By Josep M. Coll.
How can systems leadership be structured in a way that facilitates clarity and organization in its implementation and use, especially given that it is a collective type of leadership that harnesses the power of collective intelligence for solving a complex or wicked problem, in order to enable system-level change?
The SPIRAL of systems leadership is a practical model aimed at framing, developing and facilitating the transformative power of systems leadership for conscious and impactful organizations and practitioners that work in the domain of systemic transformation, regeneration and sustainable development.
SPIRAL is a name mnemonic that helps in remembering the five principles and in organizing the five phases of the model: S for Systeming, P for Purposing, I for Inviting, R for Re-designing and AL for Adaptive Learning, which are shown in the figure below.
The principles and core capabilities of the SPIRAL model of systems leadership. (Creative Commons “Attribution-Share Alike” license (CC BY-SA)); (Original: J. M. Coll).
Systeming
This starting phase-based principle consists of a systemic exploration of the complex challenge or problem of concern to develop a systemic diagnosis of the problem.
Systems thinking is the core capability required in order to implement this principle. As Hobbs and Midgley pointed out in How systems thinking enhances systems leadership, it helps leaders to “review a wide range of opportunities for change by encouraging them to question the existing system.” It does so by exploring interrelationships across the different stakeholders involved and affected in and by the system, engaging with their different perspectives and questioning the system’s boundaries.
Purposing
A well-told story for change is a critical step for repurposing the system that we want to change, as described by Thea Snow and colleagues in Storytelling and systems change. Therefore, this phase-based principle is about envisioning purposeful and compelling narratives that are formulated in such a way that they motivate and engage the interested actors and system’s stakeholders. These narratives make sense in the context of a collective imagination that draws a desirable and wanted future or outcome.
Storytelling is the core capability required to craft and draft these narratives. It involves the skilful art and science of creating, writing and communicating new future narratives. They have the power to unleash a creative energy that attracts and engages the diverse participants of the system that are compelled to exercise their agency to change it, or to create new healthier systems.
Inviting
Engaging with multiple divergent perspectives is a key systems thinking concept. The principle of inviting means exercising convening power with the key stakeholders who are part of the system and wish to be part of the transformation.
Convening multiple perspectives is the core capability required to successfully bring in the system’s participants. It involves the ability to identify, map and engage with different stakeholders, building trust, weaving interpersonal relationships, and conveying meaning and a sense of purpose that are a stepping stone for shaping emerging ecosystems.
Redesigning
Redesigning involves the co-creation of pathways of transformation and is built on a thorough understanding of the system’s mental models, behavior and its dynamics (systeming), when there is a desirable purpose explicitly formulated (purposing), and when the involved and affected stakeholders have already been engaged and are eager to join the co-creation phase (inviting).
Re-designing indicates the importance of highlighting the flaws and cracks of the current system and acknowledges that the emerging solution might either be a regeneration of the current system or the generation of a new system that replaces the old one.
Futures thinking is the core capability required for co-designing the new solutions, initiatives, products, services or other interventions aimed at changing or improving the system. It directs the observer to explore the current reality from a future perspective, feeding the forward-thinking into the systemic design process.
Adaptive Learning
The ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the co-created intervention makes the principle of adaptive learning a key component of the SPIRAL.
As an organic pattern, it allows iterative-based experimentation and the capturing of evolutionary feedback that feeds the adjustments and adaptations required to affect the desirable systems change.
Principles that guide the implementation can be evaluated and adapted to context. In this light, a developmental and principles-focused type of evaluation is conducive to adaptation. Indeed, adaptability is the core capability required for learning in such a way that enables systemic adaptations.
Conscious facilitation: a sixth core capability
Although not a principle, conscious facilitation is a sixth core capability, because in the practice of systems leadership, the facilitator becomes an active observer, who engages with the system. The system, therefore, shapes – and it is shaped by – the facilitator’s participation in the system.
The outcome of the facilitation is highly dependent on the quality of the facilitator’s perception. Perception shapes realities and possibilities. As such, the level of consciousness of the facilitator plays a critical role for sensing and harnessing the power of the collective intelligence informing the design process. It may show up as patterns, structures and mental models that deconstruct the problematic old and shape the emergence of the new.
Conscious facilitation is a cross-cutting core capability required for exercising effective systems leadership throughout the practice of the five principles. Often ignored, it operates in the realm of the invisible, yet it is the fundamental magic sauce that makes the transformation possible.
Final words
This model emerges as the consolidation of years of action research in the context of my own experience in facilitating systems leadership for sustainable development.
The six core capabilities can be developed by any individual, team and organization.
As well as choosing the name SPIRAL as a handy mnemonic, the SPIRAL also reflects the organic pattern, movement and dynamics of nature and life, as shown in the figure below. It means continuous evolution and transformation. Working with the SPIRAL mimics nature’s work, which is a key characteristic of regenerative and life-affirming processes. As an organic pattern, the SPIRAL is an iterative movement, in which principles and phases may happen sequentially and/or simultaneously, and results may emerge in non-linear evolutionary dynamics.
It should be noted, however, that this model is not related to SPIRAL dynamics, a framework to understand and guide human development.
The
SPIRAL model of systems leadership as an organic process. (Creative
Commons “Attribution-Share Alike” license (CC BY-SA)); (Original: J. M.
Coll).
What is your experience in applying systems leadership initiatives to address complex problems? What frameworks and methods do you use? Do you have any facilitation tips or suggestions that you would like to share?
To find out more:
Coll, J. M. (2022). What is systems leadership? Josep M. Coll weblog, Medium (publishing platform). (Online): https://medium.com/@josepmcoll/what-is-systems-leadership-47c53a571620
Coll, J. M (2023). Simplexity: The art and science of finding simple methods to complex interventions. Josep M. Coll weblog, Medium (publishing platform). (Online): https://medium.com/@josepmcoll/simplexity-the-art-and-science-of-finding-simple-methods-to-complex-interventions-9b6e5e4f84e
Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Statement: Generative artificial intelligence was not used in the development of this i2Insights contribution. (For i2Insights policy on generative artificial intelligence please see https://i2insights.org/contributing-to-i2insights/guidelines-for-authors/#artificial-intelligence .)
Biography: Josep M. Coll PhD is Professor of Systems Leadership and Sustainability at EADA Business School in Barcelona, Spain, and visiting professor at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea and at the University of Birmingham in the UK. He is also advisor to the Centre for Systems Leadership at Singapore Institute of Management. He works as a consultant and facilitator of trainings, workshops and retreats on systems leadership, sustainable development, organizational design and evaluation for adaptation for public and private organizations, including the United Nations and the European Commission. He is the author of the book “Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking: The Natural Path to Sustainable Transformation” (Routledge, 2021).