Building Better Systems
An introduction to System Innovation
This paper lays out a series of steps people can take to create the new systems we need to meet shared, public challenges. Systems are ubiquitous and powerful. We rely on them to support our daily lives: every time we turn on a tap, flick a switch for electricity, drop our child at school, jump on a bus or visit a doctor we rely on a wider system. There is a widespread sense, among decision makers and citizens that in the coming decades society will need not just new products, software and services, but new systems for living sustainably in a socially inclusive society. The need for better, different systems will be heightened by the impact and lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Related publications
Intervention Report
Resourcing Systems Innovation
GO TO INTERVENTIONS REPORT
Inverventions report
The Power to Shift a System
Go to Inverventions report
Inverventions report
System Innovation on Purpose
Go to Inverventions report
Inverventions report
The Patterns of Possibility
Go to Inverventions reportMore about the initiative
Initiative
System Innovation
Go to initiativeLatest releases on the same welfare topic
Research report
Where Production Meets Automation: Robots and the International Geography of Production
April 2026
Research report
College admission as a screening and sorting device
March 2026
Research report
Relative Wage Misperceptions and Early Career Job Search
March 2026
Podcast
Young People and Opioids
March 2026