145 - The ABCs of Systems Change: Integrating the Six Conditions of Systems Change and the Actor-Based Change (ABC) Framework to develop evaluable theories of change for systems change initiatives

Abstract Information: Since its publication in 2018, The Water of Systems Change has greatly influenced the way many organizations think about the problems they are trying to address and how they should address them. The authors argue that catalyzing systems change requires shifting the conditions that are holding complex problems in place. They posit Six Conditions of Systems Change that can assist in designing effective strategies to shift the conditions that hold problems in place and achieve lasting systems change. Although this framing conceptually resonates with many organizations, at the operational level the shift from conventional ways of working to designing systems change initiatives is not as straightforward.

This session will demonstrate that integrating the Six Conditions of Systems Change with the Actor-Based Change (ABC) Framework can assist organizations in making this shift. The ABC framework integrates concepts from complexity science, behavioral science and models of causal inference to develop evaluable theories of change for interventions in complex systems. Integrating the Six Conditions of System Change into the approach provides a useful and intuitive way to identify causal pathways from intervention to system change.

This session will provide an overview of how to conceptually integrate these two approaches followed by two practical examples of how this was done for two different types of initiatives. It is hoped that through this session participants can begin to integrate and apply these concepts in their own work to further operationalize the Six Conditions of Systems Change within their organizations' strategy design and evaluative efforts.

Relevance Statement: Since its publication, The Water of Systems Change has shifted how many organizations think about the problems they are trying to address, and the ways in which they address them. It made the case that complex problems, such as housing and unemployment, remain persistent due to a wider constellation of constraints that “hold these problems in place” (Kania et al, 2018), such as government policies, cultural norms, and power imbalances.

The authors argue that conventional approaches to standalone grants or siloed programs are not enough to tackle this myriad of constraints, and it is necessary to refocus strategies on achieving “systems change” to shift the conditions that hold problems in place. They posit six conditions of systems change that can assist in designing strategies to achieve systems change: changes in policies, practices, resource flows, connections and relationships, power dynamics, and mental models. Although this framing conceptually resonates with many organizations and practitioners, at the operational level the shift from conventional programs to designing systems change initiatives is not as straightforward. Many organizations still rely on standard approaches, such as theories of change (ToCs), and struggle to integrate these new ways of thinking and working into their institutional processes.

This session will demonstrate that integrating the Six Conditions of Systems Change with the Actor-Based Change (ABC) Framework can assist organizations in making this shift. The ABC framework integrates concepts and frameworks from complexity science, behavioral science and models of causal inference to develop a theory of change for interventions in complex systems (Koleros et al, 2018). It begins with a system mapping exercise to understand what is “holding a current problem in place” and uses this shared understanding to develop a system-level theory of change that identifies how activating multiple actor-level changes will lead to overall systems-wide changes. Integrating the Six Conditions of System Change into this process provides a useful and intuitive way to identify pathways to system change that is consistent with the framing included in the Waters of Systems Change.

We have successfully applied this integrated approach for a range of organizations, from large-scale philanthropic efforts aimed at catalyzing education sector change across multiple countries, to initiatives aimed at strengthening technology ecosystems, to localized efforts aimed at changing municipal-level policies and programs. It has proven useful strategy design and evaluation purposes. This session will provide an overview of how to conceptually integrate these two approaches followed by two practical examples of initiatives at the global and local levels. Through this session participants will begin to integrate and apply these concepts in their own work to further operationalize the Six Conditions of Systems Change within their organizations' strategy design and evaluative efforts.

Kania, J., Kramer, M. & Senge, P. (2018). The water of systems change.
Koleros A, Mulkerne S, Oldenbeuving M, & Stein D (2018). The Actor-based Change (ABC) Framework: a pragmatic approach to program theory in complex systems. American Journal of Evaluation vol. 41, no. 1, 2018, pp. 34-53.