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
2
Acknowledgements
3
Contents
4
Executive Summary
6
Foreword
8
Growing up in North Camden
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Key activities of North Camden Zone
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Impact movements for systems change
17
How we got here
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A new perspective: systems change
18
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
22
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
29
The challenges of systems change 30 1. System awareness How to start thinking like a system
30
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
50
The way forward 52 Join the impact movement 54 Glossary
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Bibliography 58
Building impact movements
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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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Building impact movements
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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
Building impact movements
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
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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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