What is your Theory of Change?

What is your theory of change?

How does change happen in organizations and communities?

As a change champion, how do you affect change?

I recently asked a mentee these questions and as they responded, I could see their eyes light up, confirming the suspicion behind my line of questioning. Like so many doing work requiring systems change, culture change or transformational change of any kind, this individual was so busy doing, they had not paused long enough to think about what they believed about changemaking. In the work of leading movements for change, it is so critical to pause to consider why you do what you do and what you believe about how to get there. That will impact all the work you take on, to get you from where you are now, to the desired future you are working towards. A typical theory of change can be both conceptual and practical. It is meant to comprehensively articulate at a minimum, your: purpose, assumptions and beliefs about change, current reality, desired future outcomes, pathways to the desired future, strategies and actions on the pathway to the desired future and how you will know you are making progress.

A more practical rendition of a theory of change starts to look like a strategic roadmap, but by far the most important elements in my view, are your purpose (which defines your reason for being and your call/work in the world – see more here) and your fundamental beliefs/assumptions about how change happens. Your fundamental beliefs and assumptions about how change happens ultimately become your guiding compass for how you live out your purpose. If you define yourself as a change leader or agent, the core of your theory of change must be your elevator pitch response to the question: How does change happen in communities, organizations and systems? This could be culture change, large-scale change initiatives in organizations, community organizing, social change, climate action…essentially any realm in which you are working towards transformational change in the way things are done to deliver fundamentally different outcomes than today.

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