Three Lenses for Leading Change in Education: Systems Thinking, Systemic Thinking, and Strategic Thinking
Education leadership is complex with common patterns persisting across the leaders we coach. Stakeholders, external pressures and flux, and the emerging challenges at a local and global level are making an already tangled web, unfathomable.
Leaders must be able to competently and confidently navigate uncertainty, lead innovation, and respond to challenges with clarity and foresight. But not all thinking is developed equally. To lead effectively, it helps to know when and how to think strategically, when to think systemically, and when to use systems thinking.
In real life, these terms can be used interchangeably, however, they are quite different; each bringing a different lens to a situation or challenge. Understanding the difference isn’t just semantics, it creates leadership nuance; a key capability in complex ecosystems.
1. Systems Thinking: Understanding the Dynamics of the Whole
Systems thinking is the ability to see interconnections, feedback loops, and patterns over time rather than isolated events (Meadows, 2008; Senge, 2006).
Systems thinking is a way of seeing the big picture. It helps leaders understand how different parts of a system (such as a trust, a school or a learning ecosystem) interact over time, often in nonlinear, at times non-tangible and unexpected ways. It emphasises feedback loops, delays, and emergence (a key component of transformation) and leans into leaders that are both listening and sensing.
This approach to thinking is essential for:
Addressing persistent issues that don't respond to quick fixes.
Diagnosing why well-intentioned policies lead to unintended consequences.
By mapping the system, leaders identify leverage points for effective change: strengthening professional learning communities and adjusting evaluation timelines to reduce stress and improve feedback quality, whilst knowing that not all impact will be as intended.
Key questions:
What are the patterns and feedback loops at play?
Where are the gaps, inefficiencies, weaknesses and leverage points?
How might the proposed changes create unintended consequences?
2. Systemic Thinking: Seeing Patterns Across Structures and Contexts
Systemic thinking extends systems thinking by considering how power dynamics, structures, equity, and lived experiences shape how a system operates (Reynolds & Holwell, 2010; Midgley, 2000).
Systemic thinking zooms out even further. It’s about seeing interdependencies across structures, policies, culture, and values. While systems thinking focuses on dynamic relationships, systemic thinking addresses deep-rooted patterns and underlying causal structures that have shaped how the system operates.
Think of it as thinking about the whole system, including historical, cultural, and institutional forces—not just what's inside the system, but what shapes it from the external conditions it operates within.
This approach to thinking is essential for:
Tackling wider cultural or societal challenges such as equity, inclusion, or structural reform.
Uncovering how policies or norms in one area affect others across the organisation – considering the intersectionality of specific areas.
Mapping relationships and impact ripples across multiple components.
Key questions:
What structural or cultural factors shape this problem?
Whose voices, experiences, and perspectives are centred? And whose are marginalized within how this system works?
How do power dynamics (formal and informal) shape the outcomes we're seeing?
What assumptions underpin the way this system has been designed?
How could this show up in the decisions of your direction and how to get there through integrating the ‘parts’ of the whole organisation and community?
3. Strategic Thinking: Charting a Course
Strategic thinking is the ability to anticipate future challenges, consider multiple scenarios, and align actions with long-term goals, often in conditions of uncertainty (Liedtka, 1998; Graetz, 2002). We are hearing a lot of demand for anticipatory governance of our organisations and their boards.
Strategic thinking is goal-oriented and future-focused. It combines creativity, logic, and planning to make decisions aligned with long-term objectives. Strategic thinkers balance short-term realities with long-term goals, assess trade-offs, and adapt strategies in dynamic conditions.
This approach to thinking is essential for:
Setting vision and priorities.
Making trade-offs between competing initiatives or resource constraints.
Considering the approach you are going to successfully implement the journey
Key questions:
What is our purpose and vision and what moves us toward it?
What future scenarios (including both opportunities and risks), do we need to prepare for?
How can we align our resources, capabilities, and culture to move toward our long-term purpose while navigating current constraints?
What assumptions underpin our current strategy? And how can we test or challenge them?
Final Thought: Thinking Differently to Lead Differently
Effective educational leadership today requires flexible, adaptive thinking. By cultivating the ability to shift between systems, systemic, and strategic thinking, education leaders can design more thoughtful interventions, avoid reactive pitfalls, and create lasting change that works for everyone.
But tools alone aren't enough. Self-awareness, your personal values and principles, your ability to take different perspectives, and your relationship with failure is the fuel that powers these approaches. The real challenge isn’t choosing which type of thinking to use- it’s consciously knowing when and how to shift.
The Inner Work of Outer Change: Why Values, Perspective, and Failure Matter
While frameworks like systems thinking, systemic thinking, and strategic thinking equip leaders to navigate complexity, they’re only as effective as the mindset and self-awareness of the person using them.
Start with Your Values: Your Inner Compass for Complex Change
Knowing your core values becomes critical. When your values are clear:
Systems thinking helps you ask: “How do my decisions impact not just outputs, but the wellbeing of the system and its people?”
Systemic thinking leads to “Whose voices are missing, and how can we design more equitably?”
Strategic thinking becomes purpose-driven, not just goal-driven.
Perspective-Taking: Seeing Beyond Your Own Lens
All three thinking modes require the ability to shift perspectives:
Systems thinking asks: “How does the system behave from different vantage points?”
Systemic thinking explores: “How do stakeholders experience this system differently based on their position, power, or identity?”
Strategic thinking demands: “How might others react or adapt to this strategy?”
Perspective-taking is the bridge between systemic awareness and compassionate action. If we are to create collective communities as a vehicle for change, we simply must understand the varying values and beliefs of our stakeholders inside and outside of the organisation. The clarity of organisation’s values must be bigger than one’s own. Only then can you create the principles (boundaries) to scale and distribute decision making effectively. Particularly in the case of rapid adoption of AI, the guardrails these principles provide are essential if our goal is to ensure nourished child development.
Failure as Feedback: The Mindset Shift for Complex Change
In complex systems, failure is a natural signal from the system. As Amy Edmonson would argue – it should be an intelligent failure, which provides us with valuable learning about assumptions, boundary conditions, and unknown variables. We have sensed that fear is a deep root that is restricting the change most know is required. Intelligent failures occur in new, uncertain contexts where the outcomes are unknowable in advance, and they offer critical data for adaptation, innovation, and deeper understanding of the system itself. Leaders must shift from a performance mindset to a learning mindset.
Systems thinking encourages leaders to see unintended consequences not as mistakes, but as feedback loops revealing hidden dynamics.
Systemic thinking shows how failures often stem from misaligned parts of the system, not individuals.
Strategic thinking involves testing hypotheses, adjusting strategies, and learning iteratively rather than waiting for perfect plans.
To what extent do you and your team consciously bring this thinking to the table?
Conclusion
The most effective education leaders don’t just master the tools of systems, systemic, and strategic thinking. They build a team and culture that cultivates:
Value clarity – knowing what matters most.
Perspective agility – seeing through others’ eyes.
Failure resilience – embracing error as a teacher.
When paired, the inner game (self-awareness, humility, reflection) and the outer game (systems tools, strategic plans) create leaders who are both effective and compassionate changemakers.
The most effective change starts at the intersection of strategic clarity, systemic compassion, and personal integrity.
If you are interested in developing yourself as a leader, team opportunities and the benefits it can offer more widely for your organisation we would be delighted to have a free introductory call with you. Please book a call or contact us at info@glasshouselab.com.
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References:
Edmondson, A. (2011). “Strategies for Learning from Failure.” Harvard Business Review, 89(4), 48–55.
Graetz, F. (2002). "Strategic Thinking versus Strategic Planning: Towards Understanding the Complementarities." Management Decision, 40(5/6), 456-462.
Liedtka, J. (1998). "Linking Strategic Thinking with Strategic Planning." Strategy & Leadership, 26(4), 30-35.
Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in Systems: A Primer. Chelsea Green Publishing.
Midgley, G. (2000). Systemic Intervention: Philosophy, Methodology, and Practice. Springer.
Reynolds, M., & Holwell, S. (2010). Systems Approaches to Managing Change: A Practical Guide. Springer.
Senge, P. (2006). The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization. Crown Business.