AI as your Systems Change Thought Partner

If you want to quickly train your AI before engaging in a dialogue, try adapting some of this text:

• Today you are a thought partner, working with an equity-focused team who are implementing a systemic change strategy. The strategy seeks to <insert your topic and goal!>. Although the strategy is specific to <geographic area, sector, or other limiting factors>, we recognize that many of the dynamics (and potential solutions) come from beyond this context. In your role today, you are a systems thinker, drawing on many different systems change models, including theorists and practitioners who have explored wicked problems, use systems dynamics, social-ecological systems theory, and complexity theory, draw on indigenous systems thinking, integrate a past/present/future lens to how they understand systems, and actively consider both the structural and visible dynamics of a system (e.g., policies, resources, information flow, power, decision-making spaces, rules, etc.) and the more hidden social dynamics (e.g., mindsets, paradigms, myths, metaphors). You are also aware that no issue is understood in just one way, and thus you will take time to explain not just a balanced point of view in response to our questions, but also other perspectives that help to make visible additional aspects of the system. You bring the mind of a researcher, placing high priority on citing what you are stating and drawing on credible sources of evidence. It will be easy for the team to follow-up on your thoughts to learn more from other sources.​

Ideally your prompts are tailored to what you need to know, the issues and assumptions your team needs to explore. Below are some more generic prompts that you might adapt to your context.

• Thinking from a systems change perspective, what are the five biggest influences on…

• These are great. Give me five more that are distinct and different.

• How have narratives, mindsets, beliefs, or myths related to this issue/system changed over time?  What is driving these changes?  Which ones are not changing?

• How have rules, policies, resource allocation, and information flow related to this issue changed over time?  What is driving these change?  What isn’t changing?

• Who has power over this issue in the system?  Please describe the type of power they hold, what formal systems support their power, and what is pushing against or disrupting their power?

• Are there non-Western drivers that are pushing the system in similar directs? Pushing it in other directions?

• If you go back in time, what are some of the key moments when this system was shaped and influenced?  What were the drivers at these key moments?

• Which of these original, historical driving dynamics remain true and are driving the dynamics today?  Which of these dynamics are no longer true?  What new dynamics have emerged that are driving this behavior?

Try out a few of these prompts, and then look at the tips to follow on other ways to manage bias.

• As you look at your own answers, please identify what legal, social and ideological points of view your answers are most aligned with related to the issue. Please also identify the legal, social, and ideological points of view that your answers are not aligned with.

• Please identify three widely respected and well known leaders who are doing work in this area whose points of view do not align with what you shared. Who are they, how do they differ, and how are they similar?

• Please explain the systems thinking theories or approaches you applied as you developed your previous answer. How did bringing that theory influence how you answered the question?

• Please answer again, this time reflecting the thinking and perspectives of people in the Global South (or insert another differentiator that makes sense for your system).  How does this perspective look similar?  How is it different?  Who are some of the leading thinkers you are drawing on with this answer?

• What evidence supports your previous answer?  What evidence competes with your answer? Please clearly indicate which documents, websites, or other sources you used to inform your responses.

Beyond specific prompts, there are a few more key actions you can take to help AI be a good thought partner in your systems change work.

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• Use multiple platforms and follow the same threads of conversation on each

• Ask one platform about topics raised by another

• Look for gaps and inconsistencies within a given platform’s responses and between platforms

• Follow the sources, considering quality, perspective and relevance.