Your search
Results 197 resources
-
Think. Act. Lead.It seems simple enough. But understanding your desired impact and how it fits into a larger picture, connecting your work to others and finding new collaborators, and bringing those collaborators together and moving them in a unified direction is never easy.Governments, businesses, and nonprofits all have unique approaches and ideas that many of us learn through our work. Yet, we rarely consider the skills needed to create and maintain the partnerships between them. Most of...
-
This is the last in a series on the four aspects of VUCA, a framework used by the U.S. military to describe the environment in terms of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Diversity and global reach introduce ambiguity to the environment; therefore opportunities and challenges must be appreciated from multiple aspects, not just our own […]
-
This is the third in a series on the four aspects of VUCA, a framework used by the U.S. military to describe the environment in terms of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Our complex environment demands a perspective that goes beyond viewing threats and opportunities as collective; we must see them as interactive. Leading through […]
-
This post is part of an HBR Spotlight examining leadership lessons from the military. It’s the second in a series on the four aspects of VUCA, a framework used by the U.S. military to describe the environment in terms of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. The frenetic pace of our environment, brought on by volatility, […]
-
This post is part of an HBR Spotlight examining leadership lessons from the military This is the first in a series on the four aspects of VUCA, a framework used by the U.S. military to describe the environment in terms of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Do challenges and opportunities that once took days or […]
-
Collective impact is upending conventional wisdom on how we achieve social progress.
-
Foundations involved in systems change can increase their odds for success by focusing on the least explicit but most powerful conditions for change, while also turning the lens on themselves. The Water of Systems Change aims to clarify what it means to shift these conditions. We offer the “inverted triangle” framework as an actionable model for funders and others interested in creating systems change, particularly those who are working to advance equity. Top Takeaways Systems change is...
-
Based on the “inverted triangle” framework presented in The Water of Systems Change, this activity is designed to help individuals think systemically about social change, explore what is happening below the surface on issues they care about, and determine how they and their organizations can pursue large-scale change in a disciplined and holistic manner. The exercise is divided into 3 parts: Part I uses the “inverted pyramid” introduced in The Water of Systems Change to perform an...
-
"John Kay tells a fast-paced detective story as he searches for the surprising secret to success...Brilliant." -Tim Harford, author of The Logic of Life In this revolutionary book, economist John Kay proves a notion that feels at once paradoxical and deeply commonsensical: the best way to achieve any complex or broadly defined goal, from happiness to preventing forest fires, is the indirect way. We can learn how to achieve our objectives only through a gradual process of risk taking ...
-
There are many definitions of the term ‘transformation’ or ‘transformational change’. The first section of the report develops a basic understanding of transformations or transitions (used synonymously) viewed from various perspectives. In this, transformations are defined as processes that use disruptive innovations to change systems into fundamentally new systems that subsequently form the new mainstream. Section two describes existing approaches to environmental and climate finance in...
-
Collaborate and Newcastle University Business School Publish Research into Complexity-Friendly Funding
-
Foreign aid and international development frequently bring with it a range of unintended consequences, both negative and positive. This book delves into these consequences, providing a fresh and comprehensive guide to understanding and addressing them. The book starts by laying out a theoretical framework based on complexity thinking, before going on to explore the ten most prevalent kinds of unintended effects of foreign aid: backlash effects, conflict effects, migration and resettlement...
-
Document description This document is currently being finalised and will be published shortly. Please try again soon. Recent research by The BEAM Exchange seeks to understand theoretical perspectives on how market systems approaches can contribute to inclusive economic development through systemic change. It produced three main insights. Economies are evolving systems, building on the mechanisms of variety creation, selection and amplification. Current economic performance, including...
-
A growing number of US foundations are adopting practices based on systems change to achieve their goals in the current political environment.
-
Addressing 21st century development challenges requires investments in innovation, including the use of new approaches and technologies. Currently, many development organisations prioritise investments in isolated innovation pilots that leverage a specific approach or technology rather than pursuing a strategic approach to expand the organisation’s toolbox with innovations that have proven their comparative advantage over what is currently used. This Working Paper addresses this challenge of...
-
In Building Better Systems, we introduced four keys to unlock system innovation: purpose and power, relationships and resource flows. These four keys make up a set. Systems are often hard to change because power, relationships, and resource flows are locked together in a reinforcing pattern to serve the system’s current purpose. Systems start to change fundamentally when this pattern is disrupted and opened up. Then a new configuration can emerge, serving a new purpose. In this essay...
Explore
Theme
-
Adaptive Approaches [+]
- Systems Thinking / Complexity
- Adaptive Learning (9)
- Adaptive Management (26)
- Adaptive Rigour (1)
- Agile & Lean approaches (2)
- CLA (Collaborating Learning Adapting) (1)
- Design Thinking / HCD (6)
- MSD - Market Systems Development (2)
-
Other sectors
(27)
- Environmental (9)
- Military (7)
- Organizational Management (10)
- Philosophical roots (3)
- Participation (1)
- PDIA (Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation) (1)
- PEA (Political Economy Analysis) (1)
- Positive Deviance & 2 loops model (2)
- Systemcraft (1)
- Cases (7)
- Courses (1)
-
Development Actors Perspectives
(18)
- AFD (Agence Française de Développement) (1)
- China (2)
- DCED - Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (3)
- FCDO/DFID (UK) (3)
- GIZ (Germany) (3)
- KOICA (Korea's International Co-operation Agency) (1)
- OECD/DAC - Results Based Management (1)
- Private Companies - Development Industry (1)
- Private Donors (OSF, Hewlett...) (1)
- UNDP, UN Global Pulse, UN... (2)
- USAID (5)
-
Geography
(14)
-
Africa
(6)
- Central Africa (1)
-
Eastern Africa
(4)
- Mozambique (1)
- Rwanda (1)
- Uganda (2)
-
Southern Africa
(1)
- South Africa (1)
-
Asia
(7)
-
Eastern Asia
(7)
- China (7)
-
Eastern Asia
(7)
- Oceania (1)
-
Africa
(6)
-
MEL4 Adaptive Management
(54)
- Action Inquiry/Collective Leadership (2)
- Desk based research/lit review (1)
- Ethnography / Rapid Ethnography (1)
- Impact evaluation (1)
- Indicator-based approaches (1)
- Innovation System Analysis (2)
- Knowing Unknowns (1)
- Mapping Visualization Methods (4)
- MEL in International Development (3)
- Most Significant Change (1)
- Narrative Based Approaches (2)
- Network Analysis (1)
- Outcome Harvesting (1)
- Outcome Mapping (1)
- Participatory Action Research (2)
- Participatory Evaluation (1)
- Political Economy Analysis (1)
- Portfolio Management (2)
- Process Tracing (1)
- Qualitative Comparative Analysis (1)
- Randomized Controlled Trials (2)
- Realist Evaluation (2)
- Rubrics (2)
- Scenario Planning (1)
- SenseMaker (3)
- Stakeholder Feedback (1)
- Surveys (1)
- Systemic Change (26)
- Systems Mapping (6)
- Theory-based evaluations (2)
- TOC (Theory of Change) (8)
- Trans-disciplinary Research (1)
- Utilisation focused evaluation (1)
- Networks and Communities of Practice (1)
- Organizations (1)
-
Practical
(22)
- Tools (3)
-
Sectors [+]
(39)
- Agriculture (1)
- Alternative Development (10)
- Citizen Engagement (1)
- Economic development (1)
- Education (2)
- Environmental Management (2)
- Governance and Accountability (2)
- Health (2)
- Humanitarian Aid (1)
-
Innovation (in Development)
(12)
- Funding (1)
- Institutional Capacity & Change (3)
- Knowledge to Practice (1)
- Locally driven development (1)
- Locally led development (1)
- NGOs (2)
- Organizational Change (3)
- Pastoralism (1)
- Peace Building (1)
- Scaling up / Propagating (5)
- Social Accountability (2)
- Social Change (1)
Resource type
- Blog Post (20)
- Book (36)
- Book Section (10)
- Conference Paper (1)
- Journal Article (36)
- Magazine Article (9)
- Map (1)
- Newspaper Article (1)
- Presentation (2)
- Report (76)
- Software (1)
- Video Recording (1)
- Web Page (3)
Publication year
-
Between 1900 and 1999
(12)
-
Between 1940 and 1949
(1)
- 1948 (1)
- Between 1950 and 1959 (2)
-
Between 1970 and 1979
(1)
- 1978 (1)
-
Between 1980 and 1989
(1)
- 1985 (1)
- Between 1990 and 1999 (7)
-
Between 1940 and 1949
(1)
- Between 2000 and 2024 (185)