30 - Learning towards Transformation: Using Theories of Change to Tell the Story of Efforts to Measure, Navigate, and Shape Complex Systems

Abstract Information: The social sector is more aware than ever that achieving sustainable impact is not as a simple as implementing a discrete project or program. Rather, impact comes about at the systems-level, through iterative, collaborative, and dynamic portfolio-level initiatives that bring together diverse sets of actors (funders, practitioners, researchers, and advocates) to strategize, learn, and adapt together over time. Dynamic theories of change – a fresh take on an old tool – when combined with emerging evaluation approaches, can help changemakers learn to measure, navigate, and shape complex systems to achieve impact.

In this interactive workshop, attendees will have the opportunity to learn about and practice using different measurement tools (such as sentinel indicators, progress markers, and causal link monitoring) and learning approaches (before and after action reviews, learning logs, and strategy testing) to map out and adapt systems-level theories of change. In doing so, they will develop their ability to capture and weave systems change narratives that integrate the perspectives, lessons, and priorities of different partners and allies. By the end of the workshop, participants will be equipped to bring a variety of approaches to bear in their efforts to learn about and, over time, shape complex systems, and to tell the story of their efforts in a way that enables and motivates others to pursue their own impact trajectories.

Relevance Statement: In today’s dynamic, interconnected world, changemakers – more urgently than ever before – are beginning to understand that many of the most pressing challenges we face (climate change, the rise of populism, and outbreaks of war, to name a few) emerge from a panoply of interacting variables and causes. Addressing such challenges requires real-time, collaborative learning; data-driven iteration and adaptation; and a laser focus on understanding, navigating, and over time, shaping the complex systems out of which such challenges emerge. In this context, short-term, project-based approaches, accompanied by static, accountability-focused monitoring, evaluation, and learning frameworks – for so long the modus operandi of social sector programs – no longer cut it (if they ever did!). New models are needed.

Today’s social impact professionals need to have the skills to facilitate their partners’ efforts to collaboratively map, assess, navigate, and shape complex systems, including through designing and deploying longer-term, portfolio-based initiatives that seek to enable collective action, learning, and emergence. They need to be able to help their partners collect data and evidence to weave narratives of systems change, so that they can understand and adapt their own impact trajectories while sharing lessons with partners and allies as they emerge. Evaluation is no longer simply about measuring impact. Rather, it’s about facilitating strategic learning journeys and communicating effectively about that process to accelerate systems change.

Despite being an old tool, dreaded by many, theories of change, when accompanied by right-sized, best-fit measurement and learning approaches, can anchor just these kinds of journeys. By guiding the collection and use of evidence and data in real time, dynamic, systems-focused theories of change and learning frameworks can deliver the actionable insights and lessons needed to understand, navigate, and shape complex systems over time.

In this hands-on workshop, participants will have the opportunity to develop and practice using dynamic theories of change that are focused on systems-level impact. They will also be exposed to measurement and learning approaches, including sentinel indicators, progress markers, causal link monitoring, before and after action reviews, learning logs, and strategy testing, that can be used to drive rapid cycles of iteration, learning, and adaptation across diverse coalitions of actors, while also capturing emerging stories of change. Working together, participants will explore how to design and implement such processes and tools, and trial their application in practice. They will also be guided through a reflection exercise, in which they will identify lessons from the session, and explore their implications for their own organizations and practice.