Interrogating and Aligning our Mental Models about Systems Change

Abstract Information: Philanthropy’s increasing focus on achieving scaled and sustained impact through systems change is exciting. Foundations are recognizing that many social problems are enmeshed in complex systems, and changing the systems that keep those problems stuck in place is the only meaningful way forward. As evaluators, we have an opportunity to be part of systems changes being pursued. However, we find that philanthropic leaders, nonprofits, and evaluators involved in these efforts rarely make visible our mental models about how change happens in systems, even as our decisions collectively influence the change strategy and how progress is understood and measured. As evaluators, we rarely interrogate how our mental models align or conflict with the models our clients and other actors in the system hold, especially those directly impacted by the problem being addressed and by the change process itself. We need to be aware of our mental models and why we are using them. If they conflict, we need to understand why and explore whose model should drive the approach to change. This awareness enables us to align our strategy, learning, and evaluation approaches with those who are affected by systemic change and those who are driving it. We see two mental models most commonly being used with systems change efforts: (1) the systems dynamics mental model, where strategies are aimed at points of high leverage and predict the types of changes that will occur; and (2) the systems emergence mental model, where strategies look for parts of the system that are under resourced or otherwise intriguing, and experiment with ways to disrupt or reinforce them. Although the terms used here are Western in origin, the systems emergence mental model is not just a white, Western way of systems thinking. The deep and culturally embedded approaches to systems thinking in Indigenous communities align closely with this mental model and have significantly informed this way of thinking about how systems change. This session will explore these two mental models, help participants to uncover their own, and discuss how we can better align our mental models in both strategy and evaluative practices. It will focus particular attention on the systems emergence model, which is less understood and underutilized in philanthropy and evaluation. The session will end with concrete examples of what it looks like to align both mental models with our strategy, learning, and evaluation practices.