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How to use the Positive Tipping Points Toolkit

We have created a few different ways for you to use the Toolkit, to guide you to find a journey that works for your context. These are all based on three different elements of the Toolkit:

1. Tools - the activities that have been designed and brought together to help you and others to bring the ideas of Positive Tipping Points to life.
2. Stories - we can learn so much from stories of change that have happened before, and how they might help us rethink our stories of the present and the future.
3. Questions - sometimes the right question at the right time can help us look at a situation in a completely different way.

Use one or more of the entry points below to start your journey. Don’t feel like you have to go in a straight line. Make your own route through, and if you want to share any feedback, create or suggest a tool, or contribute in any other way then get involved!

Navigating Positive Tipping Points

This section assumes you are familiar with the Introduction to Tipping Points

Navigating complex systems is, unsurprisingly, complex. The Positive Tipping Points Toolkit provides a range of tools. But to use those tools well, and put them to work with groups of people in a specific context, requires Navigators.

We use the label ‘Navigator’ to refer to someone who guides themselves and others through the process of applying positive tipping points to their work. A Navigator is more than just a facilitator. Using the Positive Tipping Points toolkit means acknowledging that change doesn't happen in a straight line.

Navigating changes in a system involves paying attention to cycles. A cycle might begin by opening new ideas, then continue by letting new plans emerge, before selecting priorities to work on. It's impossible to know in advance what will happen - you might have some good guesses, but the reality of complex systems is that stuff happens you didn't see coming!

The Toolkit supports people to act as Navigators, guiding others through the process of understanding, engaging with, and working towards positive tipping points. This process will look very different for different contexts, so be flexible, work in cycles, and notice how the conditions for change are increasing over time.

There is no ‘correct’ way to navigate complex change - all plans need to remain open to ongoing learning and iteration. However, this framework offers a useful way-in. You may already have done some - or even a lot - of this work already. So begin at the place that makes most sense for you.

This is an overview, but the rest of the Toolkit is designed to help you go much deeper into each section, so explore further when you are ready.

Step 1: Notice your starting point

What is your context? Where are you now? What challenges are you facing?

• Be specific. What scale are you working at? Remember, big change can start small. Make it personal - work with a system that makes sense to you, and is not too abstract.
• Use the tipping points curve image. In your situation, what is the ball, and what is the hill?