Building Impact Movements

Building impact movements Place-based systems change for children and young people in North Camden

Who we are

The Winch The Winch is a children’s charity based in North Camden, London. Our mission is to support each child to succeed, regardless of their circumstances, by giving them the opportunities and support they need, from cradle to career. The issues we tackle include social exclusion, homelessness, and gang involvement. We deliver a range of services in addition to developing the support, partnerships, and impact infrastructure required to transform the life chances of children and young people in our community.

North Camden Zone North Camden Zone is an initiative to make North Camden a great place to grow up for every child, by bringing together people across the community to collaborate in new, long-term, and systemic ways to bring about change.

It came out of a recognition that the way in which citizens, charities, private enterprise, and statutory services work together needs to be reimagined in order to meet the array of challenges we face. In our first two years, we have engaged hundreds of local people and organisations to explore how best to develop a place-based approach to systems change which maximises our collective impact.

Dark Matter Laboratories Dark Matter Laboratories is Project 00’s strategic design studio—a social venture organisation designing institutional infrastructures for a distributed and collaborative future. Based in London, we work with partners, clients, and associates across the world, researching and developing new support frameworks for collaborative systems change. Our goal is to apply complex systems science to turn unanticipated spillover effects into a resource to solve the wicked challenges of the 21st century.

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Acknowledgements

We are extremely grateful to the people who have enabled North Camden Zone to become what it is today, and what it will become tomorrow, and who have committed themselves to improving the lives of children and young people in our community.

We extend warm thanks to the School of System Change and Forum for the Future for the enthusiasm and energy with which they have supported North Camden Zone, making a valuable contribution to mapping the system affecting children’s outcomes.

We acknowledge the work of Immy Kaur, Andy Reeve, and the Impact Hub Birmingham team in co-creating the space, both conceptually and physically, for developing our thinking about place-based systems change.

We would like to thank the individuals and organisations represented on our Steering Group, including parents and young people, and representatives from the charity, private, and statutory sectors.

Photographs have been produced by Holly Cocker Photography.

We would like in particular to acknowledge our funders for their support of North Camden Zone:

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

June 2017

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Contents

Who we are

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Acknowledgements

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Contents

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Executive Summary

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Foreword

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Growing up in North Camden

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Key activities of North Camden Zone

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Impact movements for systems change

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How we got here

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A new perspective: systems change

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Beyond silver bullets and saviour organisations

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Movements of change

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Organising ourselves differently

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Inspiring examples and next questions

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Understanding obesity as a systems issue 23 Bringing people together around sustainable fisheries 24 Growing systems leadership in social change 25 Addressing the whole context 26 A backbone for long-term change 27 An iceberg problem

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The challenges of systems change 30 1. System awareness How to start thinking like a system

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2. Scale and scope The problem is always bigger 30 3. Rush to action The trap of ‘act first, think later’ 32

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4. Organisational capacity No bandwidth for bigger thinking 32 5. Incentives The pull of business-as-usual 33 6. System accounting Accounting for the whole, not just the parts 33 7. Legitimacy The politics of convening 34 8. Governance Accountability across the many 34 9. Collaboration The cost of coordination 35 10. Citizen participation If you want to go far, go together 35

Towards an impact movement for children in North Camden 36 1. System awareness The start of the journey 38 2. Learning culture Enquiring together 40 3. Peer-to-peer evaluation Opening up the metrics 40 4. System accounting Towards a system balance sheet 42 Achieving systemic synergy 43 5. Governance Fostering distributed leadership 44 6. System investment tools Financing collaborative change 45 7. Platform organisations Hosting a shared mission 46 8. Open and shared data Unlocking data for impact 47 9. Spaces and invitations The conviviality of change 48 Enabling systems change capacity

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Continuous research and development

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The way forward 52 Join the impact movement 54 Glossary

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Bibliography 58

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Building impact movements

Executive summary How do we make a place that is great

In reality, it is the system that

To empower individuals and

for every child to grow up in?

produces outcomes—good or

organisations united in pursuit of a

bad—and it is the ingredients and

shared mission, we must broaden

This question has been the driver

interactions of a given system that

the scope of systems change

behind the development of North

will define what these achieve. A

programmes and invest resources in

Camden Zone, a collective approach

child who succeeds will do so due

building foundational components:

to tackle the seemingly intractable

to multiple causes diffused across

a shared awareness and language,

problem of child poverty in North

different domains that are hard

methods for shared learning and

Camden, where over a third of children

to unravel and difficult to trace. It

a culture of experimentation,

grow up below the poverty line.

is clear that issues of this nature

new peer- to-peer governance

require multi-actor ‘systems change’

models, new financial instruments

efforts.

for system-wide investment,

The advancing understanding we have of how to tackle such challenges

peer-validated and data-driven

reveals layers of complexity beneath

At the same time, we are

impact evaluation mechanisms,

the surface. It has been said that ‘it

witnessing the emergence of a

organisational capacity, a sense

takes a village to raise a child’, but

growing commitment to, interest

of agency and plausibility, and the

what is the difference between a

in, and technologies for effective

convivial spaces (both literal and

good village and a bad village? What

multi-actor collaboration within

metaphorical) for the participation of

are their underlying components,

complex systems. Encouraged by

citizens and professionals alike.

factors and dynamics, and how does

these advances, we want to share

the relationship between them lead

different ways of addressing the key

The first two years of developing

to a better or a worse childhood?

challenges faced by systems change

North Camden Zone have taught us

collaborations. Prime among them is

a great deal about the challenges

Our approach to improving children’s

a shift of emphasis from short-term

that a place-based systems change

life chances tends to be focused

impact to creating the conditions for

approach needs to address, and

on individual interventions and

effective and sustainable systems

we have shared the ‘ingredients of

projects: an after-school club here,

change through ‘impact movements’.

change’ we believe are required—in

an employment programme there, a

addition to providing case studies

strong academic education, access

Moving the needle on child poverty

and undertaking research from

to positive role models. Whether we

and an array of complex challenges

elsewhere—to build a robust,

are parents, politicians, practitioners,

requires not only different modes of

sustainable, and effective impact

or commissioners we seek the

thinking and doing but also a radical

movement that can ensure that North

evidence-based intervention or

reconfiguration of the institutional

Camden is a great place to grow up

magic bullet solution that will make

infrastructure that supports them—

for every child.

the difference.

the hidden underpinnings of systems.

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Foreword

My ambition is that every young person in Camden grows up to be a thriving, active citizen with the best opportunities in front of them. But we know that as well as huge wealth and opportunity our borough has high levels of disadvantage and some of our young people face huge barriers in meeting their aspirations.

I grew up in Camden and the borough gave me a fantastic comprehensive education but I saw that too often background still determines outcomes. I

Cllr Georgia Gould

know that young people in Camden are full of energy, creativity, and promise and I am determined that we don’t allow their potential to be wasted.

Leader of Camden Council We all face substantial challenges in making this happen. We have as a council lost half of our controllable budget. While we have made the decision to prioritise spending for children and families we all now operate in a climate of scarce resources. At the same time our public sector and voluntary sector partners face their own funding problems and Camden families are struggling to deal with national housing and benefits changes. It means we need to work even harder to the tackle the inequalities in our society.

I am therefore delighted that pioneering organisations like The Winch who have a long history of supporting children and young people are responding to these challenges. North Camden Zone is an exciting and ambitious approach calling on all of us to share our resources to support our children to thrive from cradle to career.

We have to think differently if we want to genuinely transform the lives of children in Camden. There is a fantastic opportunity for us to build collective outcomes, to share one mission for children

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and young people. If we can harness the love, care, and lived experience of our communities alongside the expertise and deep commitment of our professionals then we have a powerful force in changing young lives. We need to create the conditions to allow this to happen and re-imagine the way we work so every one of us sees the young person at the heart of what we do.

Such system-level, collaborative approaches are our best way of tackling major societal challenges, and this report is a major step in making these a reality. In Camden, we have a proud history of supporting innovative work which seeks to transform the life chances of our most vulnerable citizens, and ensuring that everyone can contribute and benefit from living in the borough.

The pioneering work of the Equality Taskforce and our Complex Families work has been complemented by a wide range of local partners, ranging from small voluntary sector organisations to world-class, national institutions. Now more than ever, the role of the local authority is changing in a way that can help to leverage the expertise, resources, and skills that exist in our area, for the benefit of our citizens. Our capacity to convene, host, and champion work for the public good is underpinned by an emerging understanding of the system that we operate in, and of how multiple and disparate factors interplay to influence social outcomes.

I hope that this report will help to inspire more change-makers to deepen their collective commitment to improve the lives of children and young people in Camden, and encourage everyone who lives or works in North Camden to see they are part of the village that raises a child and they have something important to contribute.

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The local context

Growing up in North Camden

The landscape facing children and young people today is a challenging one, and understanding its nature is central to both developing an approach to address it, and to galvanising the political capital required to build the momentum required to respond.

A recent report, Counting the cost of UK poverty (Bramley, Hirsch et al., 2016) by Heriot Watt and Loughborough universities, illustrates how much poverty across all age groups costs the public purse. It finds that £69 billion, or 20% of all spending on public services, is needed as a result of the impacts of poverty on people’s lives.

The report highlights that schools spend an additional £10 billion each year seeking to counterbalance the negative impacts of poverty through initiatives such as free school meals and Pupil Premium funds. This is nearly 20% of the total schools budget. At the same time, around 35% of police and criminal justice system spending is a result of this ‘poverty premium’. Both the financial and human costs of poverty are staggering.

Poverty is manifested in a number of different ways, such as low income, family breakdown, educational failure, welfare dependency, debt, drug dependency, and various other issues. The increasing focus on ‘multiple disadvantage’ speaks to the compounding effect of a combination of these factors, which interrelate to each other and compound the challenges people face. The government estimates that up to “5.3 million people are disadvantaged in three or more areas at any one time” (DWP, 2012).

In London, children are much more likely to live in poor households than children in the rest of England: an average of 37% rather than 26% (Trust for London, 2015).

They are less likely to be able to afford everyday items or to be materially

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deprived in terms of basic essentials. The cost of housing, the failure to pay a living wage, and the relocation of increasing numbers of people from their homes to outside London highlight how acute the situation is for poorer families.

In Camden, these challenges are brought into sharp focus by the fact that the under-five population will have grown by 3.5% by next year. Children and young people as a whole make up 33% of the borough’s population (GLA, 2014).

Many parts of the borough are in the 10% most deprived in the UK (DCLG, 2015), with more than 50% having a total household income lower than £35,000 per annum (Camden Council, forthcoming). Over 3,000 young children live in households in receipt of Child Tax Credit, Income Support, or Job Seekers Allowance (DWP, 2012). Across the borough, 32% of pupils have a communication or interaction

need, and around one in five have a social, emotional, or mental health need (Camden Council, forthcoming).

Children’s health in Camden is mixed. Oral health is notably worse than the London and UK average, with more than a third of five year-olds having decayed, missing or filled teeth. Over one fifth of reception age children in the borough are obese.

Lone parent households account for just under 30% of all households with children in Camden, and just over half of lone parents are not in employment, with 22.4% in full time employment. In total, 32.5% of the child population in the borough live in a household with no working adult (Office of National Statistics, 2011). The minimum combined income required for a family to live in the

private rented sector in Camden is estimated to be £70,000, but a quarter of households have an annual income of £20,000 or less (Camden Council, forthcoming).

This places huge pressure on families and children, in particular in light of policy changes and subsequent out-of-London relocations.

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The local context North Camden experiences many of the same trends as the wider borough, as well as some exceptions. It is a diverse area, in which the affluence of certain areas disguise the deprivation of others. Between the richest and poorest parts of North Camden there is a difference in life expectancy of thirteen years. Parts of Kilburn, for example, are in the 10% most deprived in the country whereas areas in Belsize and Swiss Cottage are in the wealthiest 20% (DCLG, 2015).

Kilburn and Swiss Cottage score badly on physical and mental health, while the whole of North Camden scores extremely poorly for living environment and air quality (DCLG, 2015). Childhood obesity, in particular at the end of primary school, is above the borough average.

Yet understanding what this means for a child growing up in Camden and what drives these statistics is complex. Furthermore, these statistics are derived from publicly available and often aggregated data sets. They speak to various factors and needs that relate to or act as proxies for long-term outcomes for children and young people, but their relationship to each other and their importance in setting trajectories is extremely unclear.

Furthermore, they speak primarily in terms of deficits, focusing on the disadvantages experienced by children and young people. The challenges that exist are evident, and so the mandate is a powerful one, but how we build our understanding of what need and response look like and how we shift the frame to build also on strengths and potential is a central part of the process.

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Since 2011, The Winch and subsequently North Camden Zone have worked to respond to the realities of a fragmented system and to the challenges and opportunities presented to children and young people growing up in North Camden. The Zone has been about engagement of citizens and professionals, or fundraising and planning, of research, learning, and activity. We started by engaging with the wider community and having discussions with over 450 local people and providers to establish a picture of what was working well, what needed to be improved, and where the challenges lay. We brought together cross-sector working groups including service users to explore different issues, such as health and nutrition or youth employment. We established a Steering Group made up of high level cross-sector professionals and ‘experts by experience’ who have used different services, and fostered both bottomup activities from local parents and a more focused piece of work around redesigning the support system around primary to secondary school transition.

Through this process, there have been system-level outcomes, like connecting people and building awareness of the wider system, project-level outcomes, such as increased confidence and reduced isolation, and the learning and insight that we have sought to capture in this report and which forms the basis of our strategic plan going forward.

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The local context

Key activities

WHO JOINS OUR NETWORK

The development of North Camden Zone, 2011-2016

Whatever It Takes launch attended by wide network of professionals, parents and young people; speeches from Sarah Hayward, Michael Little, John Poyton and Judith Alexander

Engagement with Michael Little and SRU at Dartington

Secured funding from Nominet Trust for PromiseTech

Joined Public Service Launchpad to develop PromiseTech

Secured funding from Locality through community organisers scheme

KEY EVENTS 2011

Winch visit to Harlem and development of The Promise Academy vision

The Winch in Harlem

by BBC News

OUR PUBLICATIONS AND BLOGS

A year of change blog

Press: The Winchester Project finds inspiration in Harlem

by Camden New Journal

Events/activities Individuals, communities, organisations, foundations and trusts

Projects/programmes Publications/reports/blogs

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2012

Launch of Promise Work model

Progress report blog

Developing children's zones blog

2013

Launch of 'Whatever It Takes' report and Promise Partnership event

2014

Preparatory discussions wit including Mike Cooke, Martin Sarah Hayward and Georgia

Roundtable on place-bas approaches at Somerset H with Dartington, Save the Ch West London Zone and Paul H

Whatever It Takes report blog

NCPZ Proposal first draft and subsequent drafts

Partnership working blog

Press: Youth worker tells Iain Duncan Smith of ‘soul-searching’ after murder of Swiss Cottage man

by Hamand High

Whatever It Takes report

Press: Youth charity hopes to plug gaps in services

by Camden New Journal

Work with Central St Martins and Camden Council Systems Thinking team

Secured funding from Lankelly Chase Foundation Period of work with Tessy Britton and Laura Billings

LBC will procure NCZ for a specific piece of research on the area of transition

Period of work with Social Labs

Work started with Simon Johnson from Advice UK

Steering Group meetings Secured funding from William Wates Memorial Trust

First Steering Group meetings with representatives from LBC, CCCG, schools, voluntary sector and local people

y

2015

2016

Arrival of Esther Norman as Programme Manager and Harriet Williams as Youth Engagement Officer

Arrival of Katherine Hewetson as Programme Manager and Cherrelle Salmon as Community Organiser

sed House hildren, Hamlyn

Place-based seminar held at Lankelly Chase

Open community and professional engagement in North Camden

450 Participation professionals in All Together and local Better: health people research consulted

by CCCG using bottom-up approach

KEY PROJECTS

Opening of North Camden Zone shop for six months

Recruitment process for Communication, Promotion and Marketing Officer

Secured funding from Rank Foundation

North Camden Zone formally starts

th LBC n Pratt, a Gould

Work started with Dark Matter Labs

Securing funding from Camden Council

Lucy Telfer, Library Manager, Belsize Library on Connecting Parents from July to December

Presenting NCZ at Centre for Youth Impact and other events

Connecting Young People Collaborative process to identify key themes and working groups with community + professionals • 8 workshops • 61 professionals, parents and young people

Connecting Groups

Connecting Parents Parent-led Weekly Sessions • 49 sessions • 60 parents • 4 volunteers

Connecting Young People Organisation mapping + Swiss Cottage Open Space Project • 10 organisations

Transitions Work

Transition co-design • 30 pupils, parents and professionals • 5 workshops

North Camden Zone Operational Plan

Primary Data on Transitions

LBC plan and deliverables document

Strategic planning

Community Organiser Report

Transition Consultation and Research • 120 young Sharing Good Practice and people, Learning parents and professionals

Lankelly Trust report

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Transition Experience Maps for parents, pupils and professionals

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The bigger picture

Impact movements for systems change How we got here On April 20th, 2011 a young man named Milad Golmakani was chased from a football pitch in north London and stabbed to death in broad daylight by a group of four young men. He was found injured, having suffered a total of 14 stab wounds, and police were called at 4.50pm. He died in hospital at 6.07pm.

Milad was known to local youth organisations, and it soon emerged that so too were his assailants. All four young men subsequently convicted of his murder had been on the radar of a multitude of service providers and youth organisations, and known to police. Yet for all of the energy, goodwill and resource directed towards these young people, the tragedy had not been averted.

Following Milad’s tragic murder, The Winch commissioned a piece of research to explore how better to tackle disadvantage and youth violence in North Camden, and to better understand the wider system in which the tragedy had occurred. We discovered a wealth of individual interventions, of hardworking professionals, of well-meaning commissioners, of public and private resource directed to diverting youth crime and antisocial behaviour (Gasson and Britton, 2013). In essence, what we discovered was a piecemeal approach which funded

targeted activities and project outcomes, but ultimately a dysfunctional, selfserving, and siloed system.

North Camden Zone emerged from a recognition that if we are to help each child fulfil their potential, we must move beyond individual interventions and short-term approaches and engage with the ecosystem in which children and young people grow up. This requires a broader, deeper and more inclusive approach: one in which we both harness the assets across a community and engage with the cultural, financial, political, and various structural drivers that influence behaviour, outcomes and, ultimately, impact. This approach, and our reflections on it, seek to ensure that every child can flourish, from infancy to adulthood.

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The bigger picture

A new perspective: systems change Tragic incidents such as Milad’s story highlight the limits of our current siloed approaches, and the need for a comprehensive rethinking of the way we respond to the challenges we face. Systems change describes an approach towards improving outcomes that that recognises the need to engage with the whole system as a series of interdependent nodes, instead of attempting to move small parts of the system individually. A growing community of change makers now sees systems change as a critical dimension to addressing complex societal challenges like improving the outcomes of young people,

Single actors can seldom change systems

addressing climate change, overcoming multiple social disadvantage, or ensuring inclusive growth (Abercrombie, Harries et al., 2015).

Creating positive change in complex systems is a ‘wicked’ challenge that C1

is beyond the ability of individual organisations acting in isolation. These issues are a product of multiple direct failings and ‘oblique’ externalities— by-products of the behaviours of many actors within a system (Kay, 2011). Even understanding the connections between different issues, trends, and nodes in a system is difficult from a single viewpoint: the complexity of interactions that influence outcomes forms an intractable web of changing and contextually specific conditions.

Therefore, systems change requires many stakeholders operating in concert. While we have built the incredible capacity to address moonshots (complicated problems of many parts, to be solved one by one), our ability to address complex problems (where the pathways to a solution are ill-defined C1

and solutions may backfire or be dependent on issues elsewhere in the DRAFT v1

system) is yet underdeveloped.

Equally, it has become clear that many current approaches are too modest in scale to address the magnitude of the societal challenges we face.

Exacerbating this is a paucity of resources: with an estimated $2.5 trillion annual shortfall in funding for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in the developing world alone (Zhan, Bolwijn et al., 2014), with public debt ballooning, austerity cuts squeezing public spending around the world, and governments selling off public assets, the resources available feel inadequate compared to the scale of the problems. If we are to make meaningful progress we have to fundamentally rethink what resources we bring to bear on our ambitions— whether extra money or new skills, insights and methodologies, or equally new passion, energy, and drive.

DRAFT v1 Complicated problems versus complex problems

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“Real movements sing—it’s an

Beyond silver bullets and saviour organisations

expression of authentic voice. A

It is becoming ever clearer that there are no single ‘magic bullet’ solutions

movement is a narrative of emotions.”

for complex problems, nor any single ‘saviour’ organisation to shoulder the

Marshall Ganz,

responsibility; and nor should there be if we seek to preserve democratic

“Moral Urgency of Non-Violent

agency. This makes addressing issues harder, as evident in a simple example:

Movements” (Ganz 2017)

investing to upgrade the energy performance of social housing stock to alleviate energy poverty might mean that there are fewer pneumonia cases, a benefit in terms of cost reduction for the local healthcare provider and fewer school absences, improving learning outcomes and generating better life opportunities (Press, 2003; Liddell and Morris, 2010). But none of those important benefits necessarily

unlock a social housing provider’s capacity to make the initial investment, and in a resource-scarce world, all too often this means that what would have been a modest upfront investment does not take place. Even though we understand that the lack of investment in the present causes significant future costs, that’s for someone else to bear. But that is a net loss for society as a whole.

Movements of change What would a different way of working look like? Our proposition is to imagine place-based movements of change, composed of many actors, working with the decentralised, distributed, and democratic capacity of a wide range of people and organisations across the public, private, and charitable sector in a given area—whilst unlocking previously untapped capacity to act, from the local to the global. It calls for new organisational models that acknowledge that the targets of investment and intervention are not necessarily coincidental with the sources of innovation and value generation, though they are still interdependent. This is a modality in which we have to create the territory for solutions to emerge, incentives to align, and enlightened self-interest to guide strategy and sustainable social investment. Through this model, large, diverse, C4 multi-sector coalitions can come together as open movements for impact,

FUNDERS

It is important to recognise that we have been trying to address this challenge ROI

INVESTMENT

ROI

INVESTMENT

ROI

INVESTMENT

ROI

committed to a shared mission, with shared accountability.

for some time and through many means: in the UK for example, we have focused on area-based regeneration, partnership working, social enterprises, procurement, and the Social Value Act. Many of these innovations have

IMPACT

IMPACT

IMPACT

enabled step changes in achieving better outcomes. However, we have, to date, lacked the organisational tools, business models, investment instruments, and, most critically, the technologies to match the seemingly limitless and growing

DRAFT v1

Return on investment from indirect value generation

underlying needs. Now we see the convergence of several technologies that are radically transforming our ability to pursue systems change.

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The bigger picture

System mapping and causal loop analysis is helping to visualise entire systems, attributing the complexity of the world, and identifying intervention points, rather than largely ignoring the interplay of multiple factors. The usefulness of this tool was demonstrated by the Foresight Tackling Obesities project (see Understanding obesity as a systems issue, on page 23), which used system mapping to identify a core ‘obesity engine’ of three feedback loops influenced by 108 peripheral variables (Vandenbroeck, Goossens et al., 2007).

Open data frameworks and rapid developments in data science and cloud computing are making it easier to work with big data in a networked way to validate hypotheses and generate predictive models. The tantalising promise of these techniques are shown in projects like Chicago’s Million Dollar Blocks, which maps the institutional cost of drug-related crime onto a map of Chicago’s neighbourhoods (Cooper and Lugalia-Hollon). At the same time, methodologies for real-time analytics developed for the biomedical industry are offering alternatives to randomised controlled trials for the purposes of measuring social impact (Moskowitz and Young, 2006).

Outcome-based financing models have given us the framework to understand the costs and risks associated with social or environmental degradation and have enabled the creation of instruments to hedge against those future risks.

While they are still at an early stage of development, there are now several such instruments used in practice, like Social Impact Bonds (Dear, Helbitz et al., 2016). These tools are starting to point the way to a viable investment

infrastructure to create an outcome-based ‘preventative economy’.

New models of multi-agent collaboration are emerging, allowing multiple actors to organise into movements for change with shared missions. ‘Collective impact’ coalitions, for example, have been pioneered in the US as a way of rallying a diversity of state and non-state organisations around complex issues such as alcohol abuse or cross-territory environmental issues. Tools like open storytelling are helping to surface key issues that are of importance in the community and and collaborative accelerator programmes can channel existing energy towards tangible outcomes. The Radical Childcare project led

by Impact Hub Birmingham is a compelling example of how these new tools can be leveraged (birmingham.impacthub.net/mission/radicalchildcare/).

Go one step further and ‘smart contracting’ based on blockchain-secured ledgers (the technology underpinning Bitcoin and other digital currencies) could soon be unlocking previously unimaginable forms of real-time, massively distributed micro-transactions and interventions around shared ambitions.

Because blockchain creates enduring, openly verifiable public records online

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C6

A virtuous helix of iterative, continuous innovation

DRAFT v1

every time a transaction or contract takes place, this could help enact, at a legal level, mass interoperability and mutual accountability for movements of organisations and individuals working together. This technology is already disrupting business transactions as seen in the findings of a 2016 report by the Chamber of Digital Commerce (2016).

Organising ourselves differently This convergence of new insights and capabilities gives way to a new mode of collaborating and organising. Fundamentally, it empowers us to recognise systems change not just as a plausible perspective on what the world needs but also as a new model for organising ourselves around change.

Impact movements need to include the public sector, charities, volunteers, corporations, local organisations, but also those directly affected by the issues, others with capacity and interest, and critically those with ‘lived experience’ (Hsueh, 2011; see also page 24). These movements need to work beyond individual organisations’ agendas, missions, and behaviours to leverage our collective capacity for coordinated agency and to moderate the unintended consequences of activities originating in silos. They need to be long-term focused and iterative, creating a virtuous helix of continuous development and innovation instead of exhausting themselves in ‘single shot’ programmes. In doing so, they can progress a fundamentally different social scaling theory, a different politics of change that transcends partnerships between the ‘usual suspects’. To achieve this, they need to be built on a new institutional infrastructure of research, planning, organising, and financing models.

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The bigger picture

Inspiring examples and next questions In imagining a new institutional infrastructure, we are building on the work of others. The shift towards a more systemic understanding of deep-seated social, environmental and economic challenges is increasingly evident amongst many leading outcomes-focused organisations and we are seeing a growing public discourse on systems leadership and system-wide design approaches (see Growing systems leadership in social change, on page 25). In some instances this has already led to innovative new approaches being piloted and scaled, such as the collective impact coalitions we mentioned before. These enable us to glimpse the potential of place-based systems change in practice and to learn some valuable early lessons (see Addressing the whole context, on page 26). What is striking, however, is that a holistic focus on place-based systems

change, encompassing both the collaborative mapping of complex issues and developing new forms of distributed leadership—as well as new business and investment models—remains rare. The examples in the following pages represent different elements of a systemic approach across many different fields; the work summarised in this document builds on the understanding and progress made by these diverse pioneers.

In the meantime, key questions remain unsolved, appropriate practices are yet to be defined, and the opportunities for building on rapidly increasing technological capabilities remain under-explored. These are some of the main questions to we seek to explore in what follows:

⬣⬣ How do we convene people and organisations as part of a shared long-term mission at scale? ⬣⬣ How do we build shared learning capacity across a wide range of people and organisations with different backgrounds, ways of working and capacity to take part in collaborative processes? ⬣⬣ How do we accelerate innovation and invention across a system? ⬣⬣ How do we design appropriate governance and accountability frameworks while preserving the decentralised, distributed, and democratic capacity of the system? ⬣⬣ How do we harness the potential of technology in developing human-centred and participative research and prototyping approaches? ⬣⬣ How can strategy and policy-making encompass a systems understanding? ⬣⬣ How do we finance this complex, multi-actor future? ⬣⬣ How de we account for long-term risk and opportunity in a systems future? ⬣⬣ How do we attribute and validate the efficacy of intervention and innovation? ⬣⬣ How do we transition from corporate to system-scale incentives?

If systems change is going to become a mainstream approach for addressing societal challenges, we need to research, develop, and retool the mechanisms of change in order to answer these questions.

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Foresight Unit / Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity

Understanding obesity as a systems issue In 2007, the UK government’s

The obesity systems map was created by combining desk-based research

Foresight Unit (Vandenbroeck,

and a series of interactive workshops with experts from a variety of

Goossens et al., 2007) created a

disciplines, complemented by other stakeholder organisations such as

comprehensive overview of

policy makers and business and civil society representatives. The report

the multiple causal factors

set out five core principles for tackling obesity:

contributing to the growing obesity problem. Using a causal loop model, the detailed obesity systems map in Tackling Obesities:

⬣⬣ A system-wide approach, redefining the nation’s health also as a societal and economic issue. ⬣⬣ Higher priority for the prevention of health problems, with clearer leadership, accountability, strategy and management structures.

Future Choices was created to

⬣⬣ Engagement of stakeholders within and outside government.

communicate and make sense

⬣⬣ Long-term, sustained interventions.

of complexity, encompassing all

⬣⬣ Ongoing evaluation and a focus on continuous improvement.

the relevant factors and their interdependencies, as well as to

A 2012 National Audit Office report (NAO, 2012) and other reviews confirmed

“support the development of a

the importance of this process and approach in driving a greater collective

strategy to intervene in a complex

understanding of the scale and multifaceted nature of the challenges. It

system,” in ways including

helped to lay the foundations for a wide range of interventions right across

scenario development.

Government. As a 2013 article in Obesity Reviews (Jebb, Aveyard et al., 2013) puts it: “The report was unique, having developed as a partnership between scientists and policymakers with inputs from wider stakeholders. It created a shared analysis of the problem, a sense of ownership and a willingness to embrace the findings. Moreover, [it] was critical in identifying the need for robust governance structures to secure continuing action.”

More recently, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, an independent, placebased foundation working to improve health outcomes in the London Boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth, has announced they will deploy their investment in a more targeted way than in the past (gsttcharity.org.uk/what-wedo/our-programmes/childhood-obesity). Reducing childhood obesity is one of two

priority focus areas where the charity will reach deep into the interlinked causalities behind the issue, from transforming services to factors such as local opportunities for outdoor play. Central to the programme is building close collaborations with a wide diversity of local people and organisations as well as innovators from elsewhere.

Building impact movements

23

MIT / Fish 2.0

Bringing people together around sustainable fisheries

A system map produced by MIT to illustrate the interplay of factors causing decreasing yields in fisheries

In the domain of sustainability

agency, thus preventing locally

the sustainable seafood sector,”

and resource conservation,

agreed limits on fishing from

focusing in particular on driving

systems-change focused efforts

being enforced both formally and

supply chain innovation. The

are also gaining in prominence. For

informally. This process led the

initiative is credited (Bank, 2015)

example, a research group within

fishermen to agree to new ways of

with helping to build an ecosystem

MIT spent two years in a coastal

limiting overfishing using ‘catch

of investors and entrepreneurs

community in Mexico working with

shares’, an approach used in other

and to define opportunities in

local people and organisations to

fishing communities.

what is often an opaque market.

Similar multi-actor supply

understand different impacts on

24

the sustainability of fish stocks

Similarly, the Fish 2.0 initiative

chain sustainability efforts are

(Gunther, 2014). Their collaborative

seeks to bring together a range

underway in other fields such as

and iterative approach ultimately

of parties around sustainable

the Sustainable Apparel Coalition

enabled them to highlight the

fisheries innovation. A networking

(apparelcoalition.org) and ZHDC

importance of seemingly unrelated

and venture acceleration

(roadmaptozero.com), which stands

issues; for example, the negative

programme, it aims to build “the

for Zero Discharge of Hazardous

role of drug cartels as they affect

knowledge and connections

Chemicals.

a community’s sense of collective

needed to increase investment in

Building impact movements

Lankelly Chase / Big Lottery

Growing systems leadership in social change Within social policy, systems

The Lankelly Chase Foundation emphasises the need to move beyond

change efforts are gaining

interventions that “paper over the cracks and layer yet more complexity

traction with primary research,

onto an already complicated and confused system” (Abercrombie, Harries et al.,

new evidence reviews, and

2015). This focus is exemplified in a recent literature review titled Women

projects being initiated. In

and Girls at Risk which aims to inform the development of an alliance

Canada, a group of researchers

of practitioners organisations, funders, and others. The alliance aims to

created a ‘fuzzy cognitive map’

“develop an evidence base of effective practice, and to create a convincing

of homelessness as a complex

case for systems change so that the needs of vulnerable women and girls

social system (Mago, Morden et al.,

can be met at an earlier stage, and where interventions fail, health, criminal

2013) and in the UK, anti-poverty

justice and other statutory services are improved so that they are able to

foundation Lankelly Chase has

break negative cycles” (McNeish and Scott, 2014).

made systems change the central ingredient of their theory of

Lankelly Chase is also putting this approach into practice with their

change (Lankelly Chase Foundation,

Systems Changers Programme, which responds to the lack of involvement

2015).

of frontline workers in policy development (Mouser and Bowers, 2017). The ambition of this programme is to enable frontline workers to contribute to and create systems change, empowering people to gain a sense of agency within seemingly intractable issues. The eleven workers all endorsed the programme both because of the impact on them, and the subsequent impact on the clients: “Now I am less affected by failure, knowing it is part of a road to success. The impact on clients’ support is enormous. I have gone from fear to championing change.”

Other funders in this domain have also responded to the need for a placebased systems change approach. For example the Big Lottery with its £112m ‘Fulfilling Lives’ fund, which aims to overcome the challenges that people with multiple needs face—such as complicated referral processes, with multiple hoops or fragmented services (Adamson, Lamb et al., 2015). With the aim to change a system which is currently based on working in silos, the recipients of the fund are partnerships between statutory organisations (such as the NHS and local authorities) and voluntary and community organisations. By taking this multi-actor approach, the programme has reached people and provided follow-through support in ways that single organisations could not.

Building impact movements

25

Harlem Children’s Zone

Addressing the whole context

Geoffrey Canada from Harlem Children’s Zone. Photograph by Center for Public Leadership and Tom Fitzsimmons.

26

Perhaps the most well known

nutrition, and social networks,

gaps, and that other metrics such

place-based approach is Harlem

from before childbirth to finishing

as lower incarceration rates and

Children’s Zone, a defined area

school. Interventions include

improved health outcomes are

of around one hundred blocks in

parenting workshops, a pre-school

also encouraging signs (Barrett,

New York. Their ‘cradle to college’

programme, charter schools,

Hovde et al., 2013). Although critics

approach to supporting children

and health programmes. It has

have argued that much of this

was initiated in 2007, building on

leveraged private as well as public

should be attributed to the extra

a one-block pilot dating back to

money in achieving these aims.

resources brought to bear on

the 1990s. The project aims to

Although it is too early to provide

the area compared with other

break the cycle of generational

conclusive longitudinal evidence

areas (Otterman, 2010), these remain

poverty by addressing the whole

that the approach works (Whitehurst

powerful pointers to a focused

context around children’s journey

and Croft, 2010), it has been argued

outcomes-based approach. The

of growing up through a series

that children within the HCZ area

approach is being replicated

of interlinked interventions.

have made comparatively better

in ‘Promise Neighbourhoods’

These focus on education, health,

progress in closing educational

throughout the US.

Building impact movements

Collective impact coalitions

A backbone for long-term change

A large body of practice has now

common enabling infrastructure or

developed under the banner

‘backbone’.

of collective impact—the commitment of a multi-actor

A well-known example is Strive

alliance from different sectors to a

Partnership in Cincinnati

common agenda for solving social

(strivepartnership.org), which started

and environmental problems,

as a ‘cradle-to-career community’

whether alcohol abuse, recidivism

in 2006. By bringing together local

in the criminal justice system,

leaders to improve education

or river basin-wide pollution

in the region’s urban core, the

issues. This structured form of

partnership sought to increase

collaboration was first articulated

student success in three public

in 2011 in the Stanford Social

school districts. More than 300

Innovation Review (Kania and Kramer,

cross-sector representatives

2011).

joined in the effort, including school district superintendents,

Collective impact alliances are

business and nonprofit leaders,

report to catalyse discussion

outcomes-focused; they grew

city officials, and university

around the current state of

directly out of the sense that,

presidents. As Strive Partnership

education in the community. This

on any given challenge, single

emphasises, it “didn’t try to create

report includes an review of trends

organisations might have been

a new educational program or

over time, highlighting the areas

achieving results but the problem

attempt to convince donors to

of greatest impact as well as

persisted. In collective impact,

spend more money. Instead,

areas where more focus is needed

stakeholders develop a shared

through a carefully structured

in order to improve the cradle-

vision and joint approach around

process, Strive focused the entire

to-career journey. Evaluation is

an ambitious but clearly defined

educational community on a single

essential to understand how to

goal, coordinate their activities and

set of goals, measured in the same

“ensure success for every child,

measurement approach, maintain

way” (Kania and Kramer 2011). Every

every step of the way, cradle to

communication, and share a

year they publish a partnership

career” (Strive Partnership, 2015).

Building impact movements

27

28

Building impact movements

An iceberg problem The approaches described in the preceding pages have made valuable progress; although they are not a panacea, they suggest that we must focus our attention on what lies below the surface. It is easy to concentrate on the most visible aspects of systems change but these are dependent on strong support from mostly invisible infrastructure frameworks. This institutional infrastructure becomes increasingly significant when it comes to aligning different organisations under a shared mission.

NEW SERVICES

NEW

C O LL A B O R ATION

SOCIA

EVA

OR

LUAT I

S

L CONTRACT

diagram

ON AND METR

ICS

VES

GAN

ISAT I O N A L I N C ENTI

FIN

ANCIAL INCENTIVES

SYST

EM ACCOUNTING

OPEN

I N V I TATION

Building impact movements

29

Challenges

The challenges of systems change

By reflecting on our experiences over the first two years at North Camden Zone as well as through case studies, we have identified key

SYSTEM AWARENESS

1

How to start thinking like a system?

Articulating the vision behind

SCALE AND SCOPE

2

The problem is always bigger

We often underestimate the required

challenges and obstacles that make

systems change efforts and building

scale and scope of responses

it difficult to pursue a place-based

a sense of plausibility among

to complex societal challenges.

systems change approach.

partners is a significant challenge.

Applying a system perspective

We do not yet have a culture of

invariably reveals that the boundaries

We have sought to explore the

system awareness. It is one thing

of a given issue extend much farther

underlying causes and drivers of

to state that societal challenges

than originally perceived and

the obstacles we have faced, not

are complex problems, with various

encompass many more implicated

solely to describe the obstacles

plausible solutions and many

factors. Typical intervention projects

themselves, bit also in order

stakeholders; it is quite another to

tend to be too narrowly focused when

to highlight the key structural

build a genuinely shared collective

we need much larger transformation

challenges that need to be tackled

awareness, across different

programmes to address peripheral

in taking this approach.

organisations and individuals,

factors that are critical in order to

around the full complexity of an

sustainably deliver positive change.

issue, different leverage points,

Attempts to produce systems change

and the differentiated roles of

through small and bounded projects

all involved. This inability to

are invariably frustrated by the scale

communicate the scope of systems

of the task, yet action organisations

change efforts at an individual

still tend to ask for too little and

level risks alienating people and

commissioners still tend to expect

handicapping our work. The lack

too much.

of system awareness and a shared language for systems change is currently creating misalignment between actors that otherwise share the same mission.

30

Building impact movements

1

10

2 1. SYSTEM AWARENESS How to start thinking like a system?

2. SCALE AND SCOPE The problem is always bigger

10. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION If you want to go far, go together 9

3

9. COLLABORATION The cost of coordination

3. RUSH TO ACTION The trap of ‘act first, think later’

8

4

8. GOVERNANCE Accountability across the many

4. ORGANISATIONAL CAPACITY No bandwidth for bigger thinking 5

7

6 7. LEGITIMACY The politics of convening

5. INCENTIVES The pull of business-as-usual

6. SYSTEM ACCOUNTING Accounting for the whole, not just the parts

Building impact movements

31

Challenges

A NORTH CAMDEN EXPERIENCE

Struggling with impatience After the first few Steering Group

RUSH TO ACTION

3

The trap of ‘act first, think later’

Action organisations are often urged

ORGANISATIONAL CAPACITY

4

No bandwidth for bigger thinking

Local organisations must often

meetings, we found that there was

by funding bodies and partners to

prioritise fire-fighting or meeting

an increasing impatience for ‘activity’

‘just do it’ and move from initial

immediate needs over strategic

on the ground. We were struggling

funding to intervention activities,

thinking and collaborative working.

with this, because the value and

despite inadequate foundational

This has an effect on human capital,

legitimacy of ‘activity’ is a powerful

work to create the right conditions for

as the necessary staff capacity,

component, and yet we were only

systems change. This preoccupation

skills, and knowhow become

scratching the surface of what

with frontline action and visible

unsurfaced and underdeveloped.

collaboration should look like at a

short-term outcomes, while well-

Struggling to innovate in step with

governance, planning, and delivery

intentioned, can undermine work

demand, organisations persist in

level. At the same time, we were

towards sustainable impact. But the

using the tools already at their

wrestling with what the data was

efficacy of this ‘impatience capital’

disposal instead of striving for

telling us about the nature of the

is often very low—attempting to

institutional transformation. Without

issues that were most pertinent to

shortcut the process by not giving

the internal capacity, and without

the lives of children in North Camden.

attention to the infrastructure

the appropriate skills and attitudes

The rush to action meant that we

of systems change usually leads

to operate as part of a system of

plunged into planning and delivering

to ineffective action. This is not

interconnected agents, organisations

on the ground, at the cost of building

about curtailing the deployment of

find themselves stuck in a cycle of

collective intelligence, connection,

interventions in the field, but rather

individual interventions and unable

and understanding.

about first creating the conditions

to engage in a wider approach.

and understanding for viable and productive experimentation.

32

Building impact movements

INCENTIVES

5

The pull of business-as-usual

Across the landscape of our service

SYSTEM ACCOUNTING

6

Accounting for the whole, not just the parts

We know that interventions in

As an example, while improving

providers, charitable organisations,

one part of a complex system can

the energy performance of housing

and other stakeholders, even those

generate positive outcomes in

estates reduces winter illnesses

who are most thirsty for change tend

another part. We also know that

and thereby reduces pressure on

to have their roots in the status quo.

multiple interventions across the

local health services, the NHS

Existing governance arrangements,

system can work together to produce

lacks a mechanism to invest in

organisational routines, and funding

amplified effects. However, we

insulation upgrades (Press, 2003;

dynamics create incentives that

still lack the tools to account for

Liddell and Morris, 2010). Additionally,

make transformation hard to

indirect and synthetic value. The

without the appropriate accounting

achieve. Particularly in the face of

existing accounting infrastructure,

infrastructure to define and measure

constrained resources, organisations

still constrained to silos defined

system ROI, it is exceedingly

are naturally focused on self-

by disciplinary, organisational, or

difficult to communicate the

preservation, risk aversion, and the

service focus, is unable to capture

value proposition of institutional

conservation of their operational

these oblique returns. The lack of a

transformation for systems change

ability, not on transforming

‘system balance sheet’ that makes

and to invite funding of multi-agent

outcomes. At the same time, financial

manifest losses and gains across

efforts towards long-term, broad-

and political incentives do not drive

organisations risks failing to capture

scope strategic outcomes.

partnership working, causing them to

a holistic understanding of system

reduce their commitment when their

profit and loss.

‘bottom line’ requires attention.

Building impact movements

33

Challenges

THE NORTH CAMDEN EXPERIENCE

Obstacles to effective collaboration In any place-based systems change

LEGITIMACY

7

The politics of convening

Even when organisations are

GOVERNANCE

8

Accountability across the many

While goodwill and trust travel

project, and in the array of US-based

nominally aligned with each other in

far, sustainable systems change

collective impact projects that our

pursuing a shared goal, politics may

will require good and equitable

outlook was initially based on, data

impede their progress. Organisations

governance. Existing governance

is central. The premise is that data

attempting to convene and host

structures are primarily self-

is not solely critical for evaluation,

multi-agent collaborations are often

referential and accountability sits at

but that it drives decision-making,

met with hesitation and mistrust

an institutional rather than systemic

shared accountability, and strategy.

from other participants who ask

level. Partnership governance models

However, unlocking data sets and

why they should heed this call

typically centre around a ‘backbone’

undertaking analysis that helps to

over any other. In the absence of a

or a command-and-control structure

identify key challenges, correlations,

clear source of legitimacy for the

which centralises power for the

and causalities in North Camden has

convener, citizens and participating

purposes of contract delivery. We

been beset by cultural and technical

organisations worry that a move to

need a new approach to governance

obstacles in persuading partners to

convene may disguise an attempt

which builds shared accountability

release data. This has partly been

to concentrate funding or political

without centralising power and

about concerns around regulations,

capital, thus starving and sidelining

compromising agency; one which

partly around organisational

other agents working within the

reflects our systems outlook.

competitiveness, and partly about

same area. This legitimacy challenge

the workload of data officers

undermines attempts to build

themselves.

meaningful coalitions and must be addressed resolutely before a multiactor movement for change can be initiated.

34

Building impact movements

COLLABORATION

9

The cost of coordination

While extolling the potential benefits

CITIZEN PARTICIPATION

10

If you want to go far, go together

THE NORTH CAMDEN EXPERIENCE

Engendering equitable participation

Building and benefitting from broad

A central premise of the Zone

of multi-agent coalitions and

public participation is essential in

was that it would be open to all to

cross-sector movements we have

systems change. However, in spite of

participate and help shape: local

to recognise that collaborations

the remarkable rise in civic initiatives

residents, parents and young people,

can add significant financial

in recent years, predominant forms

GPs and headteachers, community

overhead to organisations that may

of citizen engagement cast citizens

organisations and youth workers, and

already be operating at capacity.

and communities in too limited

so on. However, the constraints on

Efficiency-minded businesses have

a set of roles (Britton, Billings et al.,

different participants varied widely,

developed advanced digital tools

2015). The challenge is to unlock

with larger organisations more able

to coordinate vast supply chains,

the creativity, energy, and drive of

to commit to an ongoing presence,

enabling the creation of globe-

people on their own terms while

or people able to volunteer their

spanning commercial collaborations

respecting their diverse motivations,

time more able to shape discussions

(Kelly and Marchese, 2015). Advances like

instead of falling back on an

than those working full-time. This

integrated data infrastructures,

organisation-centric approach that

highlighted two issues: equity of

interoperability through open APIs

places professionals at the top and

participation, and how to ensure

(Application Programming Interfaces

citizens at the bottom. True citizen

that capacity for engagement across

that allow data sharing between

participation requires a radically

the system could be developed, not

internet-connected software), and

inclusive and open invitation that

solely for the core team.

the decentralised validation of

gives all partners (state, corporate,

transactions through blockchain

voluntary, institutional, and citizens)

are removing the inefficiencies of

a strong voice—sometimes

working across multiple partners.

privileging the voices of those with

That these tools are not yet available

lived experience and those who

in the field of social development

have been excluded—and works

keeps the costs of collaboration high

to capitalise on this collective

and dampens collaboration efforts.

intelligence across the system.

Building impact movements

35

Ingredients of change

Towards an impact movement for children in North Camden

If we are to make progress in

In the next pages we outline the core

around a shared mission. This is not

developing an approach to transform

components of a strategy towards

about a centrally directed programme

outcomes for children and young

place-based systems change for

but about building collective capacity

people in North Camden, we need to

North Camden Zone and for impact

for driving change in a distributed

organise ourselves differently. We

movements elsewhere. All these

and open, yet measurable and

need to continue to move from siloed

components are interlinked, and

mutually accountable manner. The

efforts and formalised partnerships

being intentional about them is

components therefore fall under

towards open alliances spanning

essential to ensure that we prepare

three main headings: building shared

citizens, public sector organisations,

the ground for future action.

intelligence, in order to create the

civic society, business interests, and

impetus for a different approach;

investors. If structured in the right

What binds these components is a

structuring shared incentives, in

way, this ‘impact movement’ will

recognition that in any given locality

order to enable organisations to

broaden the scope of our collective

and on any given issue the role of

act on this new perspective; and

activities and move us towards new

a systems change strategy is not

building shared foundations, in order

behaviours with strategic intent.

primarily to design interventions but

to sustain impact movements in the

to establish the conditions for change

long term.

36

Building impact movements

SH AR E 1

D

IN

T

E

L

L IG

9

E

2

E

S

C

SHARED PLA TF OR M

N

1. SYSTEM AWARENESS The start of the journey

9. CONVIVIAL PLACES Spaces of change

2. LEARNING CULTURE Enquiring together

8

3

8. OPEN AND SHARED DATA Unlocking data for impact

3. PEER-TO-PEER EVALUATION Opening up the metrics

IMPACT MOVEMENT

7

4

7. PLATFORM ORGANISATIONS Hosting a shared mission

4. SYSTEM ACCOUNTING Towards a system balance sheet

6

5

6. SYSTEM INVESTMENT TOOLS Financing collaborative change

5. GOVERNANCE Fostering distributed governance

EN N C I E D S H A R

V TI

E

S

ENABLING SYSTEMS CHANGE CAPACITY

CONTINUOUS RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Building impact movements

37

Building shared intelligence

HEALTH • Physical health • Mental health • Knowledge circulation around healthcare • Dental health • Early years health check-ups • Disability • Early years development • Access to healthcare • Exercise • Access to healthy food • Unhealthy BMI • Teen pregnancy • Substance abuse

ENVIRONMENT • Natural environment • Housing • Good home environment • Good neighbourhood safety and security • Hight crime levels • Poor air quality and pollution • Access to green spaces

EDUCATION • Private schooling • State schooling • Rules at Schools (Punishment and discipline) • Further/Higher Education • Milestones • Exam pressure • Career skills • Parent teacher relationship • Teacher quality

TECHNOLOGY • Social media • Sources of media and advertising • Media and celebrity idols • Computer games • Screen time • Spheres of influence • Access to wifi at home

EARLY YEARS DEVELOPMENT

FAMILY • Finances • Cultural transitions, attitudes and mindsets • Positive family role models and outlook • Parental discipline • Parental encouragement of creativity • Parental support for learning • Family structure • Parents relationships • Conflicting parenting styles • Parents' mental health • Parents' social circle • Language skills (parents) • Drug and alcohol addiction and abuse • Early years development • Child literacy, vocabulary, reading levels

PRIMARY SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT

SECONDARY SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT

EXPOSURE POST SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT

COMMUNITY AND SUPPORT • Engaged Local authority • Engaged social worker • Local parental support group • Hobbies • Community projects • Local independent organisations • Religious group • Social/cultural societies • Strong cohesion

IDENTITY

FRIENDS/PEERS • Social circle formation • Spheres of influence • Role models outlook • Role models • Gangs and groups • New developing social circles

• Religion • Cultural identity • Lack of control and uncertainty • Loneliness/social isolation • Stigmas • Sexuality • Gender • Race discrimination

SYSTEM AWARENESS

1

The start of the journey

Map of factors influencing children’s outcomes produced by the School of System Change

Building a shared awareness of

challenges and potential intervention

Change undertook a fieldwork project

the nature of complex systems is a

points is crucial—it builds empathy,

with North Camden Zone aiming to

necessary early step on the journey

an awareness of different roles and

further and deepen a shared system

towards systems change. This is part

motivations in driving change, and

diagnosis. Over the course of three

and parcel of imagining together

it unlocks creativity and pathways

weeks, together we field-tested and

what a systems change mission could

to unexpected solutions, or ways

iterated a series of system mapping

look like, and developing a shared

to prevent problems getting worse.

methodologies. This allowed us

mission statement. When undertaken

Crucially, the collaborative process

to make inroads in capturing and

collaboratively, system mapping

of system mapping helps establish

communicating the multiple and

can reveal the interdependencies

a culture of open learning and

interrelated challenges faced by

in the system, and can help build

accountability and highlights the

children in the community. While

bridges between practitioners,

value of jointly investing in a shared

the methodologies require further

citizens, investors, and others with

mission.

refinement, they show promise in not

a stake in better outcomes. Shared

only visualising the challenge, but in

sense-making and the development

In February and March 2017, Forum

engaging local people in engendering

of a shared language around the

for the Future’s School of System

a shared understanding.

38

Building impact movements

•agency •self confidence •self expression •knowledge of self •to be listened to •to be respected

• support network • role models • guidance • supportive teacher • mental safety • inspiration • guidance • access to help

SELF ESTEEM RESILIENCE

SENSE OF BELONGING

• acceptance • friends • supportive family • social cohesion

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP PHYSICAL SAFETY • to feel loved • attachment • friendship • support

• safe housing • safe environment

UNDERSTANDING SYSTEM PHYSIOLOGICAL • shelter • water • food • sanitation • clothing • heat

• understand places a citizen • world view • deal with complexity

STRUCTURE

FEELING COMPETENT

• self control • authority • discipline • understanding boundaries • rules • morals

• language skills • numeracy skills • computer and IT skills • life skills • no fear of failure • financial literacy • social skills • experiences • problem solving skills • praise

STABILITY

PLAY

• consistency • security • space to play • fun • laughter

GOOD HEALTH PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PURPOSE

Map of children’s needs produced by the School of System Change

MOBILITY

• Learning • Curiosity • Mental stimulation

SELF ESTEEM SENSE OF BELONGING

• vaccinations • access to health care • green space • healthy food • physical fitness and exercise • knowledge about health • attachment • to feel loved • dental care

• meaningful relationships • community engagement

• social mobility • optimistic outlook • access to opportunities • hope • experiences • access to information • access to internet

SELF ESTEEM

FEELING COMPETENT

SENSE OF BELONGING

FEELING COMPETENT

RESILIENCE

RESILIENCE

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Needs in focus: Purpose GOOD HEALTH

PLAY

GOOD HEALTH

PLAY

Needs in focus: Self Esteem UNDERSTANDING SYSTEM

MOBILITY

PURPOSE

Subsets of the needs map focusing on self esteem and purpose

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP

UNDERSTANDING SYSTEM

MOBILITY

PURPOSE

STRUCTURE INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP

Building impact movements

39

Building shared intelligence

LEARNING CULTURE

2

PEER-TO-PEER EVALUATION

Enquiring together

3

Opening up the metrics

An open experimental approach

Building shared intelligence across

From the outset, it is important

a system depends on an ongoing

to create a clear space for

relies on developing peer-to-peer

ability to learn together. System

experimentation and a shared

methods of evaluating impact and

mapping cannot be a one-off—it

understanding about its role.

managing data, rather than topdown

should be part of an open-ended

Collectively engaging with different

or external ones. These should be

process where all involved commit

ways to test and iterate ideas is

based on collaboratively defined

to discovering, prototyping, iterating,

important to validate assumptions

metrics, intelligible and usable

and learning together. Such dynamic

around system intervention points

whether for small-scale experiments

learning is key in a world where both

with real-world evidence. This should

at the frontline or for longer term

the global and the local context are

be supported through open research

programmes. This requires an agile

rapidly changing. This needs to be a

methodologies and mechanisms to

and ‘nested’ approach. For example,

low-threshold process where many

collect and share lessons across

storytelling and qualitative or social

can get involved over time, and a

the system. Doing this will enable

media data can be more easily

stepped process where different

both established organisations and

collated by local communities or

actors can engage at different levels

all of us as citizens to be part of a

small-scale initiatives than complex

of complexity and expertise, whilst

positive culture of trying out new

sets of quantitative indicators. The

remaining open and transparent.

ideas, whether at the most local level

challenge is to avoid prioritising one

in everyday activities, or in terms of

type of data over another, but to give

For example, the Radical Childcare

new propositions. We need to value

each a place in drawing a holistic and

project hosted by Impact Hub

and reward experimentation at the

dynamic picture of how the system

Birmingham (birmingham.impacthub.

edges and enable a culture of early

changes.

net/mission/radicalchildcare/) involves

stage failure if it can contribute to a

an ‘open enquiry’ based on a series

collaborative learning process.

This requires quite a departure

of public discussions and an open

from established practices. For

resource library, and aims to

example, due to their prevalence in

establish a community journalism

assessing medical treatments and

scheme in order to empower a

the accepted statistical methodology

distributed group of practitioners and

that supports them, randomised

others, such as parents, to contribute

controlled trials (RCTs) have long

to shared learning.

been popular for assessing the social impact of particular interventions.

While RCTs can quantitatively indicate causal relationships between interventions and outcomes, their applicability to social good

40

Building impact movements

ORGANISATIONS

DATA SHARING

DATABASES

programmes is limited as they require strictly controlled conditions that may be impractical or unethical—let alone that in many instances they are prohibitively expensive, and of little use in more early-stage experimental settings. Furthermore,

DATA COLLECTION

the contextual specificity of most social programmes means that RCTs seldom produce generalisable results (May, 2012). There currently exist

Real-time data is collected in open and shared databases

hundreds of alternative social impact assessment tools and methods (see for example trasi.foundationcenter. org and proveandimprove.org), but

collection (like daily diary entries

Lastly, working towards open metrics

most lack the rigour of RCTs.

or frequent questionnaires) instead

depends on a broader adoption

of depending on highly controlled

of open source principles. For a

Impact movements need to develop

environments and protocols (Moskowitz

wide range of organisations and

open, context-sensitive metrics

and Young, 2006). Combining EMAs with

local people to take part in such

that are fit for purpose in a variety

wearable devices (like those used in

discussions—and the effort required

of distributed interventions in

‘quantitative self’ methodologies),

by this—the benefits need to be

multi-actor contexts, where not

environmental sensors, and other

clear. A good example is the Spanish

all the players are established

public databases (Blaauw, Schenk et al.,

civic crowdfunding and collaboration

organisations. There are examples of

2016) could improve the quality and

platform Goteo (meaning ‘drop by

how this could play out: in the world

efficiency of impact evaluation.

drop’; see goteo.org). Its explicit focus on the ethos of ‘the commons’,

of biomedical sciences the onset of personalised medicine is creating

This needs to come about through

decentralised collaboration, and open

the need for alternatives to RCTs

participative debates on what

source approaches to development

that can measure impact without the

metrics we ought to heed, and

and data has enabled it to build

necessity for controlled, replicable

by empowering local people,

a strong community of partners,

conditions. One of the alternatives

communities, and frontline

increasing the success rate of their

proposed, Ecological Momentary

practitioners to take part, equipped

crowdfunding projects and unlocking

Assessment (EMA), is an emerging

with an understanding of the

additional non-financial benefits for

tool that makes use of sparse,

importance of every perspective to

projects.

real-time, high frequency data

the bigger picture.

Building impact movements

41

Building shared incentives

SYSTEM ACCOUNTING

4

Towards a system balance sheet

The creation of impact movements

you to avoid lots of the stresses,

example) be attributed and shared

requires a wide range of

anxieties, vulnerability, and financial

across a system?

organisations and individuals to

cost of old age. Of course this

be vested in outcomes together.

sounds plausible, especially with

Answering questions like this would

‘Thinking bigger’ and focusing on the

uncertainties over future pension

unlock greater incentives to invest in

long term should be incentivised by

policies and financial markets. But to

shared capacity and shared action;

developing a shared goal. Achieving

move beyond simple plausibility, we

it would enable us to move from the

systemic synergy between a diversity

have to address the fact that pension

plausibility of causal loop system

of actors depends on moving from a

funds track and publish their balance

mapping to an accounting system

recognition of issues towards active

sheets whereas neighbourhoods

that enables us to track, predict,

coordination, collaboration, and

and their social capital, as of yet, do

spot threats and opportunities, and

beyond. To provide the incentives for

not. Similarly, greater educational

invest in a variety of ways to avoid

this, we need new ways of accounting

attainment may unlock future

future costs—whether through

for change.

benefits for local employers, but

resolving issues or preventing them.

to incentivise them to co-invest in

This involves building accepted

It is not uncommon to hear the

educational outcomes will require a

methodologies for measuring

argument that “investing time

validated system balance sheet—the

direct, indirect, and synthetic value

in the social networks of your

evidence base to create a business

generation and costs and tallying

neighbourhood may pay off better

case for ‘enlightened self-interest’.

these together with the creation

than investing money in your pension

What would a system balance

or mitigation of future liabilities to

fund”—that living in a cohesive,

sheet for a neighbourhood look like,

understand the effects of multiple

resilient neighbourhood where

and how can growth in a plurality

interventions on the outcomes we

people know each other and would

of values (youth well-being, life

value.

lend each other a hand may enable

opportunities, and social capital, for

42

Building impact movements

Achieving systemic synergy Levels of Systemic Synergy PROJECTED OUTCOME MULTIPLIER

10×

ENGAGEMENT TOOLS

SYNTHESIS Actors use their interdependence as an advantage to drive system gains.

System accounting, shared governance and accountability

COLLABORATION

2×

Actors participate in collaborative programmes under a shared mission.

1.5×

Actors share information and use it to inform their separate programmes.

1.1×

Actors become aware of their interdependence and influence within the larger system.

Collaborative accelerators

COORDINATION Parallel accelerators with coordination points

RECOGNITION System auditing and mapping

The benefits of synergy between

The first step towards benefiting from systemic synergy involves the

participating organisations do

recognition that system actors are interdependent, entangled within a web

not emerge overnight. It takes

of causal relationships and unintended consequences. System mapping

time and effort to build up the

can reveal these connections. Based on such a shared understanding of the

capacity for working together

forces affecting each node and the system as a whole, it becomes possible

within teams used to operating

to start sharing information and coordinating efforts towards moving parts

within predefined boundaries.

of the system. An example would be periodic ‘show-and-tell’ events in which actors can openly discuss their experience in pursuit of their shared goals, or complementary innovation programmes. At this level, synergy is still limited to communication between system actors, but it sets the stage for the third step: the identification of areas of activity where resources could be pooled to create truly collaborative programmes (such as accelerators) under a shared mission. A growing in-depth understanding of the system’s behaviour gained through this unlocks the possibility of identifying and leveraging virtuous feedback loops in the system, such as constructive behaviours that encourage other constructive behaviours in turn. With the support of a shared infrastructure for accounting, governance, and accountability, this enables organisations to reach the level of synthetic synergy where working in concert increases mission outcomes by an order of magnitude.

Building impact movements

43

Building shared incentives

COORDINATION EVENT COORDINATION EVENT

COORDINATION EVENT

Activity of different actors brought together at key coordination points

GOVERNANCE

5

Fostering distributed governance

A distributed systems change

part of a deep democracy amongst

the incentives of all involved and

approach spreads the responsibility

all people and organisations

all affected? How could unexpected

for change amongst the agents

involved. Practically, peer-to-peer

challenges galvanise collaborative

within the system. By necessity,

governance could be developed

problem solving and how could

it should eschew top-down

through regular ‘town hall’ open

failures be converted to shared

hierarchical systems of governance

meetings to present and discuss

learning, strengthening a culture of

in favour of a distributed model. It

the state of the mission, frequent

experimentation?

needs to create a structure focused

open reporting, shared accounting

on letting positive leadership and

through a system balance sheet, and

To further advance ways of

peer-to-peer accountability emerge

peer-to-peer auditing.

aligning incentives across multiple stakeholders, shared governance

across the system.

The shared governance tools that

should also be enabled by new

This requires a new set of

have the capacity to drive change

contracting methods. These should

governance and accountability

towards a shared mission need

enable contracting across multiple

protocols which must be developed

to be prototyped and tested. For

stakeholders towards mutually

collaboratively, rooted in the desire

example, what would the effect be

beneficial outcomes. Recent work

to achieve systemic synergy, and

of an annual event that presents the

done on alliance contracts for large

accountable to children, young

state of children’s outcomes in North

projects where the route to success

people, and the wider public rather

Camden Zone? What would happen if

is unclear (Barber and Goold, 2014) could

than to funders’ or organisations’

the event invited all agents working

be extended through blockchain-

structures or particular mission.

towards improving children’s

enabled and other ‘computable’

Managerial command and control,

outcomes to present the work they

contracts that can be automatically

still characteristic of many

had done in the preceding period,

executed digitally. In the near future

partnership structures, needs to be

and discuss their role in improving

this could drastically reduce legal

replaced with open ways of hosting

the systems balance sheet? How

costs, making it practical to enact

the interaction between actors, co-

could instituting an ongoing public

agreements between hundreds of

resolving challenges, and distributed

conversation around valuable

stakeholders even for short contract

leadership. This is to be promoted as

contributions and hindrances alter

terms (Clack, Bakshi et al., 2016).

44

Building impact movements

DIRECT ROI

DI

INVESTMENT

I RO I

RO

IN

CT RE

RE CT

DI

INVESTMENT

IN

DIRECT ROI

FUNDERS

SYSTEM INVESTMENT TOOLS

6

Financing collaborative change

To underpin this approach, we need

IMPACT

IMPACT

new financial instruments to go SYNTHETIC VALUE

beyond the limited project-based finance hampering us today. These new instruments need to finance

Investors collecting returns from indirect and synthetic value creation

collaborative change and be firmly focused on long-term systemic outcomes; a new paradigm is needed (Knight, A. D., Lowe, T., et al., 2017). The

for increasing their sophistication

the indirect benefits of interventions

additional resources this would

through a systems approach. How

in the system. Finally, how can we

bring to bear on resolving complex

could a SIB invest in collaborative

leverage developing technologies

challenges is an important incentive

change generated through multiple

to help underwriters value the

in its own right for organisations to

ventures and organisations working

outcomes pursued by SIBs and other

be part of impact movements.

towards the same outcome across

impact investment instruments?

sectors and disciplines? Can we While the for-good sector has

create tools that enable a more

Such progress could be achieved by

explored impact investment

granular series of investments in a

developing financing models that

and crowdfunding models, rapid

wide range of local activities that

accommodate multiple investors and

advances in data science and

prevent or mitigate future liabilities,

contractors and can leverage various

smart contracting enable us to aim

aggregated through shared metrics?

forms of investment with diversified

for an ongoing and accelerated

Organisations such as the West

return streams. These must be able

investigation of new opportunities.

London Zone (westlondonzone.org)

to capture second-order effects

For example, Social Impact Bonds

and the Participatory City project

and synthetic value: the combined

(SIBs) have already become a

(participatorycity.org) are already

value generated by multiple direct

popular financing model since their

exploring such questions in practice,

and indirect outcomes from multiple

introduction at the beginning of the

for example through a ‘Collective

interventions. In the meantime before

decade (Dear, Helbitz et al., 2016). While

Impact Bond’ which aggregates

robust versions of these instruments

they enable the public sector to fund

the actions of many stakeholders.

are developed, a compelling case

projects against the mitigation of

Another approach would be an

must be made to attract transitional

future liabilities connected to project

‘impact derivative’ as a tool to enable

investment for participating

outcomes, there are opportunities

investors to capture and monetise

organisations.

Building impact movements

45

Building shared foundations

PLATFORM ORGANISATIONS

7

Hosting a shared mission

As a systems change approach calls

professionals, practitioners,

passively centralising agency in

for new models of leadership that go

politicians, and the public at large to

the system, and gradually turning

beyond traditional behaviours and

move beyond short-term or knee-jerk

other organisations into managed

perspectives, such a culture needs

responses and focus on the bigger

subsidiaries. We need to learn from

to be grown. ‘Platform organisations’

picture. Secondly, the structuring

the valuable experiences of such

need to host the collaborative

of deep incentives is paramount:

organisations in order to create a

efforts of actors and organisations

‘hosting’ in this sense means rallying

common platform type that:

across the system, enabling them

and connecting actors, but also

to effectively lead and participate.

ensuring that different people and

A ‘platform organisation’ operates

organisations within the movement

learning and experimentation;

without defining the strategy but

get the recognition they deserve, are

⬣⬣ sets up protocols for shared peer-

by promoting a shared mission. Its

able to give and receive feedback,

remit is to provide a forum for the

and maintain a culture of open

multiple voices connected to the

accountability. Resourcing these

outcomes it serves—whether public

processes adequately is a significant

sector professionals, private sector

task and the platform organisation

and commits to share learning

organisations, or local people—and

needs to be able to convene funders

publicly;

to ensure that diversity of thought

as well, enabling the sharing out of

⬣⬣ aggregates capital committed

and perspective are preserved, thus

resources in a transparent manner.

to system-wide outcomes but

⬣⬣ fosters a shared culture of

to-peer accountability; ⬣⬣ helps build capacity in participating organisations; ⬣⬣ commissions keystone research

delegates fund allocation to

enabling a culture of learning and experimentation, and an evolving

Collective impact projects have so

strategy.

far relied on ‘backbone organisations’

collective decision making; ⬣⬣ does not define strategy and

to coordinate participating

goals but has a responsibility to

The role of platform organisations is

organisations, collect data, and

challenge and provoke community

to be firmly focused on the long-

provide logistical support (Kania and

assumptions;

term shared mission, instead of

Kramer, 2011). Backbone organisations

on any particular vested interests

provide a necessary infrastructure

for all citizens instead of serving

in professional or place-based

role to connect system players

narrow community interests;

communities, or on preserving

that have not yet developed the

⬣⬣ aims to be an independent, open

the status quo. In doing so, a first

capacity to interact with the wider

organisation, contributing to the

condition for success will lie in how

network. However, this risks the

public good, and hosted by a local

the two can be bridged, inviting

unanticipated consequence of

group.

46

Building impact movements

⬣⬣ is oriented towards future value

OPEN AND SHARED DATA

8

Unlocking data for impact

Robust,dependable and

including those on smartphones and

detailed, more granular, and more

interoperable data and tools are

smartwatches, are able to create

locally anchored data sets. Equally,

essential for creating a shared

data streams from the point of view

we need to promote the continuous

picture of challenges, for evaluating

of individual experiences, measuring

improvement of data quality and

the effects of our interventions, and

heart rate, skin conductivity (a proxy

integrity, a common issue that limits

for forecasting how systems might

for stress levels), and even creating

the usefulness of data collection

move in the future.

a visual record of the wearer’s day.

efforts. This is an area in which local

Low cost ambient sensors can

councils and platform organisations

While there are many existing

track the changes in environmental

could lead.

sources of valuable data they are

variables (e.g. light and noise levels,

often kept in siloed servers and

temperature, air quality, presence of

Finally, we have an opportunity to

inaccessible due to restrictive

people) and help us understand how

leverage rapid advances in data

licenses. The use of multiple

these might correlate with outcomes.

science, using artificial intelligence

proprietary protocols creates costly

In addition, the ever-increasing use of

techniques to produce powerful

obstacles in interoperability. The

online services creates digital traces

predictive models. These can be

broad adoption of open APIs would go

that can provide a slew of interesting

used to forecast future trends but

a long way towards alleviating these

insights. Again, informed consent is

also evaluate the consequences

problems. This technology is already

key to unlocking the use of such data

(both intended and unintended)

well developed but would benefit

and implementing data collection

of proposed interventions. In that

from a full implementation across all

from these three sources would

way, these predictive models can

data holders in a system, incentivised

require a significant investment in

become valuable tools for an impact

by a strong sense of shared mission

research and development.

movement committed to a shared

and shared accountability. This in

process of discovery. In the interest

turn depends on building new shared

Taken together, existing and new data

of spreading the benefits of these

trust models amongst data holders,

sets should be brought together in

models, as well as improving their

whether organisations or the public,

initiatives to promote big data (very

accuracy, it is important to establish

about how data is used and shared.

large data sets), open data (publicly

from the outset open protocols for

It is essential to enable informed

available and shareable), and rich

contributing to such models and

consent from citizens and build

data (which correlate multiple

allowing appropriate access to their

greater capacity to manage open and

data sets to capture the underlying

results. Once again, place-based

shared data in organisations.

complexity). While such initiatives

platform organisations would be

exist at national and international

in an excellent position to promote

Better use of existing data will not be

scales (e.g. data.gov.uk in the United

these protocols, work towards

enough, however. New technologies

Kingdom, data.gov in the United

safeguarding the openness of the

are also opening up opportunities

States, and data.europa.eu in the

collaborative learning journey, and

for the cost-effective collection

European Union) there is a distinct

advance increasingly effective

of new data. Wearable sensors,

need to complement this with more

practices.

Building impact movements

47

Building shared foundations

The convivial space of rUrban’s AgroCité in Colombes. Photograph by Atelier d’Architecture Autogéré.

CONVIVIAL PLACES

9

Spaces of change

It is widely recognised that citizens

part, and the conviviality of certain

particularly in the relatively deprived

need to be at the core of systems

moments and places. People, driven

areas where the pilot runs. Therefore,

change approaches (Buddery, Parsfield

by natural curiosity as well as by

the project has taken care to create

et al., 2016). This calls for visible, open,

scepticism, will join in with emerging

physical settings for this that are as

and legitimate spaces that enable

activities depending on how

beautiful and aspirational as they are

active participation. Physical spaces

convincingly they are invited to take

welcoming and low-threshold. Far

act as places in which to convene

part and participate. This all depends

from spaces with a heavy-handed

change agents, citizens, non-profits,

on whether a platform organisation

message, the rUrban pilot spaces

corporations, small businesses,

creates settings, events, and spaces

have been crafted as a new type of

start-ups, and institutions, in which

as well as a broader culture that feel

urban commons: attractive because

to host the voices of the community,

inclusive to all, forward-looking, well-

they offer useful resources, and

and to match collective action with

organised, and authentic.

because they are great to hang out in and meet people. The broader

complex needs. Indeed, these spaces need to be shared institutions in

For example, the rUrban project

message and invitation to participate

themselves—a new type of civic

(r-urban.net), set up by the Parisian

is adopted gradually through the

asset that we call ‘21st century town

urbanist practice Atelier

convivial feel of the terrace where

halls’.

d’Architecture Autogéré and with a

you enjoy the day, the events you

London pilot hosted by Public Works,

are part of, or the music nights that

We need to recognise that people

invites local people to be part of a

bring in people who otherwise may

are motivated by different things,

radically sustainable future driven

not have been interested. This in turn

depending on who they are and

by key activities such as local food

builds the legitimacy that a space

what they do; and we have learnt

production, distributed renewable

and a movement needs in order to

that movements are not built by the

energy production, and closed-loop

carry out its longer-term mission.

clarity of the mission itself but also

material flows. This is by no means

by the quality of the invitation to take

an easy proposition to sign up to,

48

Building impact movements

Building impact movements

49

Cross-cutting conditions

Across these nine core components, two cross-cutting conditions for success emerge, without which impact movements would be unlikely to make sustained progress:

Enabling systems change capacity To move beyond the perpetual managing of the here-and-now and the limiting focus on intervention activities, we have to pay appropriate attention to growing the capacity of change makers to recognise and work within the complex reality of system interdependency. This includes: ⬣⬣ Building cultural capacity: the shared acknowledgement of the possibilities afforded by a systems view, as well as a recognition of the importance of taking collaboration seriously. ⬣⬣ Building technical capacity: the skills and knowhow to operate within a complex system, collect and analyse data, and leverage catalytic technologies. ⬣⬣ Building organisational capacity: the tools and resources to coordinate and collaborate with the other participants within the movement, to trial and test new ways of working, and to communicate openly. This includes sufficient resourcing for staff and governance, both in terms of time and up-skilling people to be successful systems leaders and change makers.

Such capacity-building has to happen across the full field of stakeholders: from key organisations to funders and from citizens to politicians. All need to be invited to the perspective inherent in impact movements.

Continuous research and development While many useful practices can and are developed through action learning and experimentation on the ground, there are certain key structural research and development challenges that are beyond the capacity of frontline organisations. Long-term, ongoing programmes will be needed to develop key infrastructures such as: ⬣⬣ robust evaluation programmes and appropriate data science methodologies; ⬣⬣ new governance structures and multi-agent contracts for impact movements; ⬣⬣ new financial instruments and the accounting infrastructure to inform them.

Running as ongoing, underpinning, parallel streams, these programmes should inform and be informed by action research and dynamic interaction with platform organisations and other frontline agents, but need to be recognised and invested in as critical fields of exploration and innovation.

50

Building impact movements

Building impact movements

51

Projected three-year timeline

The way forward Building a sustainable strategy

to grow up for every child. Parallel

through collaborative design sprints

for the progression of North

work needs to be undertaken to build

and accelerators. Alongside this,

Camden Zone requires careful

the capacity across organisations

we need to move towards building

consideration of sequencing. To

and individuals to enable them to

mechanisms for sustainable system

lay the foundations will require a

operate in a system-aware way.

investment. This three-year timeline

platform to host a public discourse

With this groundwork in place, we

is proposed as a hypothesis to test

and build hypotheses around how we

can start to develop innovative

and iterate collaboratively.

make North Camden a great place

activities, services, and products

SURFACING THE SYSTEM

• Participatory research • Desk based research • Ethnographic research • Open storytelling and group interviews • System mapping • Think pieces • Provocation pieces • Data metrics and analytics

OPEN ENQUIRY

Informal accountability

Awa

Provoking the hypothesis by field experts Building a hypothesis Platforming the public discourse

Growing the movement

HOSTING THE MOVEMENT

• Open project night • TEDx • Open Festival • 100 Coffees • Dream Make Do hacks/Hackathon • Participatory system mapping workshops • Learning community • Citizen journalism

Business case for investment

SYSTEM ACCOUNTING

MOU with accountability for different partners • Future cost • Opportunity cost • Opportunity gain

Peer-to-peer accountability SYSTEM GOVERNANCE

Building shared accountability and contributions

SYSTEM CAPACITY

• Shared MOU • Annual system change general meeting ‘State of System Address’ • Mission with proxies (turning mission to numbers) • System Balance Sheets • System audits

Building

BUILDING ORGANISATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND CAPACITY

• System leadership • Shared incentives • Data sharing infrastructures

SYS INV

Supporting leaders in the learning journey

TRANSITIONAL ENABLING FUNDING

COLLABORATIVE SERVICE DESIGN SPRINTS

CO-CREATION OF INTERVENTIONS

• Peer-to-peer conversations • Show & Tell • Weekly Check-in • Weekly Tell

ACCELERATOR PROGRA

ONGOING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

52

Building impact movements

• Evaluation and data tools • New governance structures and smart contracts • New financial instruments and system accounting

• Supporting accelerator pr • Workshop • Open showc

Deep incentives

areness of shared mission

Recognition Political capital

Attribution and social capital

Shared language and intelligence

Accountable mission statement

Mission

Generating valuable outcomes

g ideas through open discussions

Finance

Access to funding at scale

STEM VESTMENT

System accelerator programmes

BUILDING SYSTEM FUNDING

System investment

• Peer-to-peer investment model • Shared investment • Peer-to-peer evaluation • Collective impact model

Collaboratively developing new services/products/interventions

Radical new services based on system outcomes System accounting & accounting infrastructure

AMMES FOR TRANSFORMING SERVICES

rogrammes • Coaching • Mentoring case • Accelerator residential weekends

Building impact movements

53

Invitation

Join the impact movement

Throughout writing this report,

A deeply human invitation

we realised that, at times, talking

Becoming part of an impact movement is not an easy invitation to accept.

about systems change and impact

How we ‘do’ systems change is not intuitive. In part that is because we are

movements risks getting lost in

not naturally predisposed to dealing with complexity. As Elinor Ostrom, 2009

abstraction. But ultimately, systems

economics Nobel Prize winner and chronicler of the commons, recognised,

change is a very human, relational

for much of the 20th century our ideological discussions were so obsessed by

endeavour. Only the power of

the state-market dichotomy (The welfare state! Privatisation!) that we forgot

all of us, whether as citizens or

that any other options existed (Ostrom, 2009). We often saw the social world

professionals, policymakers or

through the lens of natural science, mathematics, or mechanical engineering,

practitioners, users of a service or

thus forcing it into reductionist, ‘elegantly simple’ formulas. But as Ostrom

community representatives, can

pointed out, empirical reality always belied such prejudices. Her work on the

change the systems that impact on

commons revealed many existing collective governance structures through

our and other people’s lives.

which people care for what is important to them—whether natural resources or collective infrastructures. Such collective arrangements frequently prove to be remarkably resilient and able to generate sustained positive outcomes.

Unfortunately, the prevailing narratives dominating politics, the press, or just the dinner table, did not recognise their relevance to the issues we face. With regard to children and young people, this has been particularly pernicious as it contributed to a paradigm that commissions single-issue, siloed interventions; for too long we therefore ignored our intuitive sense that it is collective arrangements and the whole ‘village’ that in drive outcomes.

The lesson is that collective engagement in complex systems is possible, but it does not happen by itself. We have to overcome our biological impulses and long-held intellectual traditions. To Elinor Ostrom this was the next big challenge of our time: “the development of institutions that bring out the best in humans”, ‘polycentric’ institutions, which help, instead of hinder, “the innovativeness, learning, adapting, trustworthiness, levels of cooperation of

54

Building impact movements

participants, and the achievement

Some of the elements of our pathway

understand our own role in enabling

of more effective, equitable, and

towards impact movements may

change together with others.

sustainable outcomes at multiple

still be abstract notions. One step

scale.”

closer to the ground, and these new

It is in places like this—permanent

institutions will have to become

platforms for change, as well

The conditions of change

very visible as specific and highly

as more temporary events and

We hope that in this report we

sociable places. In some local

conversations, all of them equally

have helped in some way to sketch

instances, aspects of new ‘platform

inviting and engaging—where a new

what these new institutional

organisations’ are already becoming

type of polycentric institution can be

infrastructures may encompass:

tangible in local initiatives—and

built. North Camden Zone is firmly

platform organisations that can

that is our ambition with North

committed to this, but we can only

host local impact movements; open

Camden Zone. Our aspiration is to

succeed by matching our effort with

workshops to map out an issue in

be a platform organisation to drive

the creativity, energy, and drive of

all its complexity, and reveal who is

this collaborative future, and create

many others, both locally and across

and who can be involved; online and

a place where shared intelligence on

the world. If we prototype, practice,

offline resources to build shared

the challenges facing children and

and learn together, we will go both

intelligence and enable collaborative

young people will be accessible to

farther and faster.

learning; and new ways of making

all, and where all feel welcome to join

shared contracts and holding each

the debate. Before people can sign

We invite you to join the journey

other to account. The next step is

up to engaging with complexity, they

towards impact movements,

to invest collectively in prototyping

need places to generate curiosity

movements not of mass protest or

these institutional infrastructures

about, and trust in a better future,

mobilisation around fixed demands,

in practice, backed up by systematic

where systems change feels human,

but of distributed and emergent

research, development, and

and where all can connect to it in

action towards shared goals and

innovation in order to develop them

different ways; where together, we

better lives.

further for the long term.

make complex systems legible, build new ways to learn, and start to

Building impact movements

55

56

Building impact movements

Appendix

Glossary Application Programming Interface (API)

Impact financing

Randomised controlled trial (RCT)

The digital protocols that allow communication

The funding of social outcomes through

An experimentation protocol used to test

between different software, commonly allowing

financial instruments such as social impact

the effects of a treatment or intervention,

automated read or write access to online

bonds that pay returns on the condition of

especially in biomedical research, but also

databases.

improved social outcomes.

used for evaluating social impact. RCTs reduce

Big data

Impact movement

a group that received a particular treatment

A term used to refer to very large or complex

A movement consisting of multiple actors

with a similar ‘control’ group that did not receive

data sets that are not susceptible to

with a shared social mission, committed to

that treatment.

conventional techniques for analysis.

a continuous, self-reflective learning and

observation bias by comparing the results from

development process.

Blockchain

Social impact bond (SIB) A financial instrument that directs private

A distributed ledger of digital records that

Multiple disadvantage

capital towards the generation of social

can be used to validate and therefore secure

The state of being disadvantaged by a number

outcomes. Through SIBs, public savings

transaction information without the need for a

of compounding issues at the same time, e.g.

contingent on social impact are used to repay

central validation service.

homelessness, unemployment, and substance

private investors.

abuse. The causes and effects of such problems Collective impact

are often interrelated.

Smart contract Digital protocols that enable the automatic

An approach towards systems change that involves the coordinated and structured efforts

Open enquiry

execution of contract-like transactions,

of multiple participants from different sectors

A process of collective sense-making developed

enabling a high volume of agreements to be

with a shared agenda, supported by a ‘backbone

as part of the Radical Childcare project in

processed in real time without the overhead of

organisation’ (Kania and Kramer, 2011).

Birmingham, consisting of open storytelling,

conventional legal processes.

collaborative system mapping, engendering a Complex system

sense of plausibility, and other elements aiming

Synthetic value

A system of many, variously interacting

to grow the conversation around key local

The combined value generated by multiple

components. Examples of complex systems

issues.

direct and indirect impacts from multiple interventions.

include organisms, ecosystems, cities, and communities. Complex systems have been

Platform organisation

subject to scientific investigation in the fields of

An organisation supporting an impact

Systems change

mathematics, biology, sociology, economics, and

movement towards an outcome, without

An approach towards creating sustainable

computer science.

dictating strategy or imposing values, but by

impact that acknowledges the interactions

engendering a shared journey of discovery and

between parts of the system and therefore calls

continuous, iterative improvement.

for interventions across multiple components

Data science

that affect the desired outcome.

An emerging field using techniques from statistics, computer science, and information

Preventative economy

science for analysing and extracting insights

An economy that invests in, and is able to

System mapping

from collected data.

account for, the multiple social, economic,

The process of identifying and diagramming the

environmental, and financial returns on

interdependencies between agents, behaviours,

Impact derivatives

the avoidance of problems or detrimental

and outcomes in a complex system.

A new class of tools to enable investors to

developments in society, the economy and the

capture and monetise the indirect benefits of

environment.

Wicked problem

interventions in the system. Impact derivatives

A problem with a formulation that cannot be

are contracts that derive their value from the

clearly defined or is changing unpredictably.

performance of other underlying outcome-

Complex systems are characterised by such

based financial instruments.

difficult and sometimes intractable challenges.

Building impact movements

57

Appendix

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