The presentation discusses mental models related to systems change in evaluation and strategy. It highlights the importance of aligning these mental models with the systems in which they operate. Two main models are explored: Systems Dynamics and Systems Emergence. Misalignment between models can lead to conflicts and ineffective strategies. The session encourages participants to make their mental models visible and take action to align them.

The Pando Fund aims to improve system health by providing funding for essential connections and conditions among people and projects. Unlike traditional funding, which focuses on individual solutions, the Pando Fund supports the entire system, helping leaders collaborate effectively. It seeks to foster relationships, share information, and create a shared vision for transformation. The fund would be governed by network participants, allowing for flexible and context-specific funding. Ultimately, the Pando Fund represents a shift towards a more holistic approach to philanthropy that prioritizes long-term system change.

Strategic philanthropy is still relevant despite recent criticism. Some argue for a shift to “empowerment philanthropy” focused on giving agency to solve societal problems. However, examples show how strategic philanthropy has successfully addressed critical issues like global health and poverty. It is important to recognize the complementary role philanthropy plays alongside government efforts. Successful philanthropy involves building relationships, gathering feedback, learning from failures, and aligning goals with grantees.

This article suggests that there are (at least) two predominant mental models about how systems change (theories of change), which have implications for how philanthropies (and others) might contribute to systems change (theories of action). One is a “systems dynamics” model, which holds on to the idea of finding leverage points to shift the dynamics of complicated systems.The other is a “systems emergence” model which more fully acknowledges the complex nature of many social challenges. The authors make the case that: Approaches to supporting systems change ought to be aligned with understandings of how change happens (while also testing and adapting those understandings over time); and, that by making our mental models about how systems change happens explicit, we can support more constructive conversations and collaborative learning about approaches to supporting systems change, and their effectiveness.

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Funders are shifting towards an ecosystem approach in philanthropy to create lasting, systems-level change. Trust-based practices are reshaping power dynamics between funders, grantees, and the systems they aim to transform. Strategy development in complex systems must be adaptive and collaborative, involving multiple perspectives. Funders play a role in implementing strategies by supporting community-driven solutions and building relationships. Learning and evaluation in trust-based philanthropy focus on continuous learning and shaping strategy for equitable systems change.

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In the realm of systemic design, a paradox exists where designers aim to shape regenerative and sustainable systems, yet the emergent nature of these systems defies direct design. Regenerative design offers a way forward by rejuvenating and restoring systems beyond sustainability, focusing on creating conditions for regenerative flows. Designers need to understand living system patterns, feedback loops, and interdependence to craft systems that self-regulate and evolve. Regenerative designers facilitate emergence by designing for possibility and cultivating the capability of systems to adapt and thrive, contributing to a future where systems are not just sustainable but truly regenerative and harmonious with nature.

Investing in systems change capacity is essential for achieving lasting and sustainable change. Philanthropists have realized that concrete outcomes alone are insufficient, and true systems change requires embedding solutions deeply within the system itself. This involves building strong systems, developing broad buy-in within institutions, and combining responsiveness with a strategic approach. Examples from various philanthropies demonstrate the importance of investing in capacity, such as supporting community power-building efforts and building network capacity. Additionally, fostering buy-in and shared learning among philanthropic staff and trustees is crucial for effective systems change. Overall, investing in systems change capacity is key for achieving long-term impact and transformation.

Funding individual point solutions is not sufficient for improving system health. The current funding architecture prioritizes point solutions and creates competition among organizations for funding and credit. To address this, a new approach is needed that focuses on funding enabling conditions and system health outcomes. This requires building a facility that can holistically support system health, convene diverse actors, foster learning and collaboration, and provide system-level sensing and sensemaking. Additionally, new portfolios should be created that bundle system health outcomes, enabling conditions, and point solutions, with different time scales and types of funding. The role of financial capital providers should also change to increase transparency, accountability, and adaptive governance.

Systemic investing is a new investment logic that seeks to work in complexity and foster systems change. It is a different way of framing and understanding the nature of change needed to tackle the most persistent and pressing challenges facing humanity. Systemic investing is grounded in a systems view of the world and requires a particular mindset and way of being. It involves multiple kinds of actors working together, often in combinations that have not occurred before, and includes frameworks for enabling cooperation, coordination, and coherence between multiple actors.

Reflections on the importance of ensuring that efforts to address corruption are informed by analysis of the actors, actions, interactions and causal dynamics which drive the emergence of patterns in complex social systems. Shared with the aim of nurturing conversations, collaborations and cross-fertilization amongst various initiatives that are experimenting with different approaches to understanding and addressing the complex and power-laden systems dynamics that shape corruption and hinder the implementation of public policies.

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Systemic investing is a niche within sustainable finance that focuses on understanding how change happens in complex systems. It takes a different approach from traditional impact investing, which assumes that transformative change can come from single technologies or projects. Systemic investing recognizes that reality is made up of complex adaptive systems and that interventions are more likely to succeed when using systems thinking. The field is exploring how to measure and manage impact in complex systems and is looking to the evaluation profession for insights. There is a need to redefine impact and develop new measurement approaches that align with the principles of systemic investing.

Innovation requires collaboration and bold ambitions to create better outcomes for people and the planet. Systems innovation involves using diverse actors and platforms to drive change towards shared goals. Challenge-led innovation focuses on learning, experimenting, and iterating to tackle complex issues. Projects and portfolios play key roles in driving innovation and learning in systemic change. Measurement and sense-making are crucial for tracking progress and adjusting strategies in complex systems.

The Stepping Into Systems Series introduces fundamental topics about systems change, exploring concepts like systemic worldviews and working systemically for transformation. The series features interviews with diverse practitioners from around the globe to provide a multiplicity of perspectives on systems practice. Viewers are encouraged to watch the films, reflect on their learning, and engage with the resources shared by the School of System Change.

Systems gardening is an alternative approach to managing complex adaptive systems, based on the principles of complexity science. It recognizes that these systems are not predictable and controllable like machines, but rather require a nurturing and responsive approach, similar to that of a gardener. The systems gardener creates the conditions for new properties and phenomena to emerge by altering the system’s environment or context. This approach involves setting flexible boundaries, introducing probes or experiments, and managing the emergence of beneficial patterns. The goal is to foster locally valid solutions and facilitate systems-level change. Identifying and supporting “pockets of the future,” which are small, significant examples of the new paradigm, can help demonstrate the viability of the new system and catalyze broader change.

Organizations cannot demonstrate their impact in complex environments. Doing so requires them to create a fantasy version of the story of their work, which makes genuine change work harder because it is challenging to learn and adapt from corrupted data. Asking organizations to demonstrate their impact is using outcomes as performance management tools that make it difficult to do impactful work. Impact isn’t delivered in the real world, and the so-called “delivery” mindset is damaging. The key shift is from funding for “demonstrable” impact to funding for collaborative learning and adaptation, which is how real impact is made.

Evaluating Research for Development (R4D): Innovation to Navigate Complexity discusses the challenges involved in evaluating the impact of research for development programs and calls for complexity-aware approaches to evaluation to navigate uncertain impact pathways. The document highlights four interconnected tensions in complexity-aware evaluation practice, including evaluating performance while fostering learning, evaluating prospective theories of change while capturing emergent change, evaluating internal relational dimensions while measuring external development outcomes, and evaluating across scales. The aim of the document is to contribute to R4D evaluation theory and practice and navigate difficult methodological choices and manage distinct, at times contested fields of practice and thinking.

In Combining, Nora Bateson invites us into an ecology of communication where nothing stands alone, and every action sets off a chain of incalculable consequences. She challenges conventional fixes for our problems, highlighting the need to tackle issues at multiple levels, understand interdependence, and embrace ambiguity. Insisting on our collective responsibility to confront the looming threats to humanity‘s survival, she advocates change through interconnectedness and challenges us to rethink our perspectives on relationships, community, and the very essence of being human.

Combining is an invitation to nurture genuine connections and navigate a world brimming with “Warm Data” – the interrelationships that integrate elements of every complex system. The book calls on us to shed our linear thinking and embrace “Aphanipoiesis” – the unseen ways in which life comes together to foster vitality and propel evolution.

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What does it mean to lead in an emergent way? How do we support ourselves and our collaboratives to be open to new and transformational ways of working? In this virtual office hour, John Kania, Cynthia Rayner, and Juanita Zerda (Collective Change Lab) answer attendee questions about the inherent tensions and challenges that arise when working in emergent ways, and share practices to navigate through them.

The document explores the shift towards an ecosystems approach to funding in philanthropy, focusing on experiences from foundations like MacArthur and philanthropic organizations. It discusses the limitations of traditional funding models based on siloed interventions and the importance of fostering societal transformations for Sustainable Development Goals. The narrative emphasizes the need for collaboration, cooperation, and co-creation within ecosystems to address systemic failures and support systemic shifts. The document also highlights the significance of funding new possibilities through initiatives that invest in ecologies, platforms, networks, and assemblages to drive long-term systemic change and societal impact.

To build regenerative communities, we should learn from how life thrives in nature. Soil health, cultural beliefs, and social systems are interconnected. Remedying embedded inequities in soil, society, and self is crucial for transformative change. Soil keeping teaches cooperation, trust, and nurturing radical imagination. Cultivating fertile conditions can democratize power and wealth, fostering emergence and transformative change.

The blog post Governance for System Change explains how different approaches require distinct strategies for system change work, including governance. Centralized control is unworkable for system change due to the dispersed and diverse actors involved, requiring instead distributed decision-making. To bring coherence to this work, partnerships and relationships must be built, and a focus should be placed on creating conditions for change over short-term outcomes. Multiple ways of knowing should be relied upon to understand diverse perspectives. These practices require time to develop, but they can increase the likelihood of shifting a system to a more desired state.

The field of systems change has progressed to the point where the focus is not on whether it is needed to address big challenges, but rather on how to implement a complex-systems approach. However, many have underestimated the difficulties of building a system-change organization, which has resulted in higher costs. It is important to understand the challenges and pain points that organizations may encounter when pursuing systems change, and to proactively develop strategies to address them. This includes being mindful of terminology, recognizing the need for internal organizational shifts, adapting approaches to specific contexts, building muscles for emergent strategy, and reorienting the idea of success and how it is measured in systems-change work.

In Emergent Strategy, Adrienne Maree Brown presents a unique approach to understanding and engaging with life’s complex systems. Drawing inspiration from the natural world, she introduces principles and elements that mirror the adaptability of ecosystems and the fractal patterns found in nature. The methodology outlined emphasizes embracing change through a collaborative, non-linear process. It explores flexible planning strategies, fostering resilience in the face of challenges, and collectively envisioning future possibilities. The book offers a detailed roadmap for achieving meaningful change and underscores the importance of growth, healing, and transformative justice. (Source: Shortform)

Ecosystem Investing: Achieving Impact at Scale discusses the importance of understanding and altering social systems to drive social change effectively. Target’s strategic investments in education focus on scalability and sustainability within the social sector, emphasizing the need to view work within a broader ecosystem for impactful results. The shift towards ecosystem investing involves transitioning to new behaviors and assumptions, moving from transactional to transformational relationships, seeking understanding over answers, and embracing interrelation and unpredictability for collective long-term impact. By engaging various partners and adjusting approaches accordingly, ecosystem investing shows promise in addressing complex social challenges and driving population-level outcomes.

The book describes what it means to say the world is complex and explores what that means for managers, policy makers and individuals. It aims to bring alive what complexity is all about and to illustrate the importance of loosening the grip of a modernist worldview with its hope for prediction, certainty and control.

The first part of the book is about the theory and ideas of complexity. This is explained in a way that is thorough but not mathematical. It compares differing approaches, and also provides a historical perspective, showing how such thinking has been around since the beginning of civilisation. It emphasises the difference between a complexity worldview and the dominant mechanical worldview that underpins much of current management practice. It defines the complexity worldview as recognising the world is interconnected, shaped by history and the particularities of context.

The second part of the book uses this lens of complexity to explore issues in the fields of management, strategy, economics, and international development. It also explores how to facilitate others to recognise the implications of adopting a complex rather than a mechanical worldview and suggests methods of research to explore systemic, path-dependent emergent aspects of situations.

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Foundations should move from predicting outcomes to adapting strategies for complex social problems. Strategic philanthropy may not always fit the realities of social change in a complex world. Emergent strategy allows for continually evolving solutions tailored to specific circumstances. To address complex issues effectively, philanthropy needs to shift from a predictive to an emergent model. This shift involves co-creating strategies and improving the overall fitness of the system.

In this paper, we challenge the universality of three basic assumptions prevalent in organizational decision support and strategy: assumptions of order, of rational choice, and of intent. We describe the Cynefin framework, a sense-making device we have developed to help people make sense of the complexities made visible by the relaxation of these assumptions. The Cynefin framework is derived from several years of action research into the use of narrative and complexity theory in organizational knowledge exchange, decision-making, strategy, and policy-making. The framework is explained, its conceptual underpinnings are outlined, and its use in group sense-making and discourse is described. Finally, the consequences of relaxing the three basic assumptions, using the Cynefin framework as a mechanism, are considered.

The text explores the concept of circularity in natural systems and cognition. It discusses how closure in processes leads to emergent properties and paradoxes. The author presents examples from biology, formal systems, and cognitive perspectives to illustrate these ideas. The text emphasizes the interconnectedness of subject and object in shaping our understanding of reality. It suggests that reality is complex, interconnected, and constantly evolving, challenging traditional notions of objectivity and understanding.