ABSTRACT
This chapter shows why practitioners need to choose a living systems perspective, which means: taking a relationship-based approach to cultivating change; and learning and innovating towards a sustainable future. The whole of humanity on Earth is becoming more noticeably interdependent. Global communications, international governance, markets and supply chains make us increasingly interconnected. Systems thinking is one approach that might help shift our perspective when trying to address the challenges of sustainability. Living systems are embedded or nested within each other. How resilient a system is depends on the multiplicity, diversity and variability of the relationships. The more of these a system has, the more resilient it is to shocks and changes. There are limits to this resilience. When it reaches these limits a system will tip or shift from one dynamic state to another. This shift means existing connections move around and reconnect in new ways.
