Connecting strategy design and impact evaluation through rigorous, practical methodology. Research and tools for practitioners, evaluators, and anyone trying to make systems work better.
Explore the frameworksPractical methodology for mapping systems, measuring change, and understanding what drives it.
How to map a system in terms of actions and actors - connecting what you map to what you measure.
Read more → FrameworkA six-step process for assessing system performance and understanding why systems change.
Read more → FrameworkThe building blocks of programme theory -what actually drives actors to change their behaviour.
Read more →Critical perspectives on widely-used frameworks, and conceptual foundations for doing things differently.
What theory of change gets wrong about systems -and what a better approach looks like.
Read more → Coming soonWhy the iceberg model is more misleading than helpful -and what to use instead.
Read more → Coming soonA clear definition of systemic change and how to think about measuring it.
Read more →Most approaches treat strategy design and evaluation as separate activities. This work starts from a different premise: the same theory of change that guides what you do should also guide how you measure it.
The frameworks here distinguish between understanding a system as it currently exists (its composition and performance) and understanding how systems actually change over time. This distinction between system states and system dynamics is fundamental to both designing effective strategies and evaluating whether they work.
The approach is deliberately practical. Systems can be understood in terms of their concrete parts: the actors involved, the actions they take, the resources they exchange, and how behaviour changes. This makes systems tangible enough to map, strategies specific enough to implement, and change concrete enough to measure.
The academic foundations behind the frameworks.
A step-by-step process connecting system composition, performance, and dynamics. The core methodology.
PaperA practical guide to mapping systems by incorporating both actions and actors for strategy and evaluation.
PaperA practical tool for understanding what drives behaviour change. Four building blocks for designing and evaluating interventions.
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