In two new podcasts, Multisolving Institute Founder and Director Elizabeth Sawin talks multisolving and system thinking. Read below to learn more.
“Multisolving is the idea that you can use one investment of time or money or energy to solve more than one problem at one time. So, in that way, my grandmother was a multisolver, in that she could figure out how to stretch a dollar in six different directions. And a small farmer who incorporates permaculture into his practice is a multi solver. It’s not a new concept as I understand it. What we bring to the Multisolving Institute is saying that in the space of climate change, equity and biodiversity, we can really do with more of that thinking.”
We live as part of a wondrous planet, an intricate web of interconnections and relationships. We have been taught, though, to think not in wholes and connections, but rather to break everything into simple, easy-to-digest pieces. What is often lost is our knowledge that we are whole, and that we belong here. Fortunately, systems thinking helps us to see interconnections and complexities, and learn from whole systems, like a body, ecosystem, economy, community, or planet. Drawing on this way of thinking, multisolving helps us solve complex problems by taking actions that result in many interconnected benefits.
This conversation looks at systems thinking and multisolving – starting with a decades-long experience of cultivating an intentional community.
