The Necessary Tangle

Source guide · Two working drafts

Making things change: a guide to systems change for young people

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.

Choose an edition

Start with the revised draft. The first draft is kept here so you can compare them.

First draft

v0.01.1 BT · 11 November 2026 · 32 pages · PDF

The first draft, originally published on 9 November 2026, retained for comparison. Resource links corrected 11 November 2026. Uses the fictional college bus problem to explore systems, boundaries, power, feedback, and practical action.

2026-11-11 Making things change young person’s guide v0.01.1 BT.pdf

What changed in the second draft?

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.

Use it on a situation you care about

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.

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Benjamin P Taylor · Both editions are working drafts. Published here with the author’s permission.