Rooted in the study of chaos and complexity, Adaptive Action introduces a simple, common sense process that will guide you and your organization into reflective action. This elegant method prompts readers to engage with three deceptively simple questions: What? So what? Now what? The first leads to careful observation. The second invites you to thoughtfully consider options and implications. The third ignites effective action. Together, these questions and the tools that support them produce a dynamic and creative dance with uncertainty. The road-tested steps of adaptive action can be used to devise solutions and improve performance across multiple challenges, and they have proven to be scalable from individuals to work groups, from organizations to communities.

Trust-based philanthropy is highlighted as a strategic approach that can lead to enhanced resource efficiency and significant impact. It emphasizes building open and trustful relationships between funders and grantees, allowing for better understanding of organizational needs and more responsive support. This approach enables nonprofits to pivot when circumstances change, reduces the burdens of grants administration, and empowers leanly staffed funders to drive impact effectively. By valuing the expertise of leaders and fostering flexibility and trust in relationships, trust-based philanthropy proves to be a strategic and impactful model for philanthropic work.

The text discusses how strategic capacity building and trust-based philanthropy can support nonprofits in achieving long-term success by fostering collaboration and mutual accountability. It emphasizes the importance of transparent conversations, shared respect, and ongoing support between funders and grantees to maximize impact and address challenges effectively. By working together closely and offering targeted capacity-building opportunities, foundations can help nonprofits become more sustainable, cost-effective, and scalable.

The text discusses criticisms of Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) and how randomistas have adapted to address weaknesses in areas like construct validity, external validity, and ethics. Randomistas are shifting towards embedded experiments and A/B testing to improve the relevance and effectiveness of experiments, acknowledging the need for greater consideration of context and ethical concerns in research methods. Overall, the text highlights the evolving approaches in experimental impact evaluation and the need to move beyond traditional methods to address fundamental flaws in RCTs.

Funders are shifting towards an ecosystem approach in philanthropy to create lasting systems-level change by embracing trust-based practices and redistributing power. This shift involves redefining the role of funders as facilitators and learners within a larger ecosystem of stakeholders. By focusing on community voices, intentional strategy implementation, and continuous learning, funders aim to achieve equitable systems change.

Monalisa Salib wants you to get cozy with the context. If your theory of change is full of assumptions and logical statements that could easily be true anywhere in the world, it’s probably not going to work. Only by understanding the context where we operate and respecting the actors and the expertise in that context will real change happen. That means knowing the specific players, actors, and dynamics where change gets done. Another tip she has for you: people matter more than process, and technical solutions will never be enough.

From consciousness to free will, and even life itself, it has become commonplace for philosophers and neuroscientists to explain some of the most puzzling phenomena in the universe as ‘emergent’. Some even make the claim that nothing in science makes sense without emergence, the idea that the characteristics and behaviour of the whole is different from, and in addition to, its parts. But critics argue there is a danger emergence gives the impression of understanding when in reality it explains nothing.

Can we explain emergence and account for an overall property occurs when it is not present in the elemental parts? Might a new science of emergence enable breakthroughs in our understanding of life, consciousness and physical properties like superconductivity? Or is emergence a rhetorical device used to give the misleading impression that materialism is capable of explaining the deepest mysteries?

Starting from the premise, advanced by the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR) and the European School of Governance (EUSG), that at the core of our current polycrisis lies a crisis in governance, this dialogue seeks to explore the intricate relationship between governance systems and the multifaceted crises we face today.

Understanding local weather conditions can be complex due to microclimates. Weather forecasts provide guidance, not definite answers. Situational awareness and active participation are necessary when interpreting weather forecasts.

Data alone is not enough for evaluation challenges, as seen through the lens of weather forecasting. Weather data can be collected and analyzed, but it’s just one part of the complex systems we face, requiring situational awareness and critical thinking for useful insights. Evaluative practice emphasizes thoughtful analysis and transparency over relying solely on data for definitive answers.

This blog discusses three “Localization Smart Rules” to shift power to local actors in development work: scoping for localization, co-creating with local actors, and maintaining local system awareness. The rules aim to guide organizations in promoting locally-led development and fostering collaboration with local partners. Applying these rules can lead to more effective and impactful international development initiatives.

The CALI methodology supports adaptive management by analyzing interventions to reduce deforestation in complex settings, like the Peruvian Amazon. It involves systems mapping and participatory discussions to assess impact and drive positive change. CALI can be applied to various development projects, emphasizing adaptability and collaboration among stakeholders.

The organization is relinquishing control of its assets to support social justice work. They aim to dissolve separations and promote interconnectedness in addressing complex social problems. The shift challenges the traditional charity model based on separation and control.

Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) are often considered the gold standard in research, but they have significant limitations that affect their validity and explanatory power. RCTs overlook contextual factors, human agency, and ethical considerations, making them less suitable for understanding complex real-world phenomena. Critics argue that RCTs are overused and may not be as effective or ethical as commonly believed.

The conventional paradigm in political economy routinely treats living, complex, adaptive social systems as machine-like objects. This has driven political economists to over-simplify big, complex social processes using mechanical models, or to ignore them altogether. In development, this has led to theoretical dead ends, trivial agendas, or failed public policies. I propose an alternative paradigm: adaptive political economy. It recognizes that social systems are complex, not complicated; complexity can be ordered, not messy; and social scientists should be developing the concepts, methods, and theories to illuminate the order of complexity, rather than over-simplifying it.

Foundations should shift from predicting outcomes to a more adaptable approach for tackling complex social issues. Emergent strategy allows for flexible solutions tailored to unique circumstances. Co-creating strategies with various organizations can lead to more effective philanthropic efforts.

The article explores the adoption of system and portfolio approaches in the development sector, focusing on organizational motivations, challenges, and collaborative experiments. The study reveals diverse interpretations and motivations for experimenting with these novel approaches, highlighting the need for organizational and sector-wide changes to achieve transformative impact. Actors in the development sector are engaging in collaborative experiments centered around systemic investments, thematic portfolios, and monitoring for system change.

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.

The article explores the adoption of system and portfolio approaches in the development sector, focusing on organizational motivations, challenges, and collaborative experiments. The study reveals diverse interpretations and motivations for experimenting with these novel approaches, highlighting the need for organizational and sector-wide changes to achieve transformative impact. Actors in the development sector are engaging in collaborative experiments centered around systemic investments, thematic portfolios, and monitoring for system change.

Emergence refers to the arising of unpredictable, nondeductible, and irreducible coherent structures, patterns, and properties in complex systems. Emergent phenomena are understood as collectivities or integrations occurring on a macro-level emerging out of less integrated substrates on a micro-level. The construct of emergence is turned to when the dynamics of a system can be better understood by focusing on across-system organization rather than by decomposition into parts. As the sciences of complex systems have rapidly expanded over the past three decades, the study of emergence has come forward as one of the most vital areas of research and theorizing, a dramatic shift from hovering on the edge of credibility as it was in the past to being embraced currently across a wide range of sciences and related fields of study.

The text discusses the importance of systemic practices for achieving a socio-ecological transition towards sustainability. It explains various system practices like System Thinking, System Innovation, and System Leadership, highlighting their interconnected nature in driving transformative change. These practices form a cohesive framework, like different colored threads weaving a vibrant tapestry, to guide societies towards a regenerative and resilient future.

The text discusses how certain words used in social change work can either limit or expand possibilities for creating positive impact. It encourages thoughtful reflection on the language we use and how it shapes our understanding of social change efforts. The authors suggest evolving our language to focus more on relational aspects and interconnectedness to catalyze meaningful social transformation.

While systems change intentions and approaches are on the rise, much mystique still surrounds the actual practices that drive durable shifts in systemic patterns, structures, and mindsets. This session will introduce a framework that is being used across a region of northwest lower Michigan (US) that breaks down systems change into four core strategies and corresponding indicators of change. It will offer micro and macro examples of how storytelling has been a critical tool to clarify and chronicle systems change in action, create a common language, and inspire deeper learning and action. Opportunities and tools to practice applying frameworks and storytelling will be shared.