Free guide · Two working drafts
A young person’s guide to systems, power, and practical action
A free, illustrated, 32-page guide for young people who want to change something harmful, protect something valuable, or create something new. Two working drafts are available.
An unreliable college bus and a group creating a music space give readers two fictional situations to investigate. The revised guide connects purpose, ways of seeing, action, and learning, with questions about power, authority, organisation, and evidence.
Start with the revised draft. The first draft is kept here so you can compare them.
The current draft. Starts with both a transport barrier and the possibility of making music together; develops systems change, leadership, organisation, and learning.
2026-11-10 Making things change - a systems change guide for young people v0.02 BT.pdf
The original draft, retained for comparison. Uses the fictional college bus problem to explore systems, boundaries, power, feedback, and practical action.
2026-11-09 Making things change young person’s guide v0.01 BT.pdf
The second draft adds a framework for systems change, six approaches to systems leadership, and a second worked example about creating a music space. It develops the distinctions between systems approaches, the part we play in recurring patterns, and how people organise together. Both editions are working drafts, with original diagrams, exercises, a worksheet, and sources.
Read in any order. Try a question with someone whose view differs from yours. The examples are fictional; the guide offers ways to investigate and act, rather than evidence that a particular intervention will work.
The worksheet is on page 28 of the revised draft; sources and further learning are on pages 30-31.