This paper looks at the government's plan for action zones in education, employment and health which aim to break out of the cycle of deprivation. It examines how the many individuals, groups and organisations who will be involved in the action zones will work together. The authors feel that if they are to break the mould and deliver fundamental change, they will have to find genuinely new ways of working that are not based on traditional power structures. Rather than using the same methods of managing change that are used in single organisations, the authors suggest another way of managing change in complex systems. They look at three critical elements of the Working Whole Systems method: what is the system issue?; who is the system?; and is the system aware of itself? They conclude that methods of working successfully are designed to allow: everyone to participate as an individual, not a representative; everyone to work from experience; careful use of time; conversation and storytelling as the unit of currency; and trust that local solutions will emerge.