Introduction by Hannah
Problem: Managing and sustainning change in a complex and predicatable environment requires very different approaches and tools to those required to produce deliverables defined in advance.
- Understanding context
- Explicitly discussing assumptions
- Which planning tools and do we know which encourage us to recognise and expand the limits of our own knowledge?
- There should be a culture of humility based on contribution not attribution
- What sort of notion of development is based on not being able to learn
- Learning needs to be based on curiosity and bringing people and knowledges together to create new sort of knowledge
- Recognise the importance of values and principles. Why are we doing that? Also values are important for communication strategy and these things can also live on.
- Social change should be at the basis of all planning, rather than project itself, and these are built on values
- You need a theory of change which puts the assumptions on the table. Based on this, you can negotiate and learn
- Iterative, crtical, constant questionnaing is needed.
- Organisations may be frightened of putting their values on the table.
- Not an expertise and expert-based approach.
- To bring about change, you need to be tactical but stories of change might be convincing (eg Nokia)
- There needs to be a link to the 'value for money' but this can mean there is a re-interpretation (multiple inputs, multiple outputs)
- Negotitation of value for money: a sort of assessment of efficiency (experience of Oxfam)
- Collecting 'evidence' and defining what that evidence is.
- One defintion of complexity is that
- aspirations and intentions are important
- how you manage relationship with dnors: internal advocacy, negotiation, integrity, trust,
- Notion of professionalism, not working as a super-bureaucrat but as flexible
- IKM as a research programme is saying things should be done differently, as an individually we can manouvre and negotiate.
- Michael Quinn Paton's work on 'developmental evaluation'
- Continuous learning with others, things don't need to solid, debate ideas and exchange
- What sort of evidence will convince people of the value of IKM Emergent: decisions to do things differently, need to document things differently, we need to think about the way we've done things differently, what do other people think? Governance needs attention: accountancy controls, reflection
- Cynfin framework: quadrant, rahter than binary simple versus complex. Do things get more simple over time? Bringing up a child: you can do it once makes it easier to do it once.
- Enthusiasm for being confused: enfusiasm (Riff)
- Steal from the right: ratings agency (AAA ratings) doing something
- Realist evaluation: you can generlise more
- Different to predict: a very open ended process as the one described by Michael David
- Educate people about uncertainty and then they will be more comfortable with uncertainty which is positive.
- IKM2 idea: helping agencies to deal with uncertainty
- We need a way of articulating, mapping, evidencing the things that are not planned: Chambers' 15%.
- Process document is very important for understanding the process.
- A process ToC which will adapted along the way but it can get turned into a glorified framework.
- Waht stops things becoming reified tool, possible MSP.
- New managerialism, distance control mechanisms, in univerisities.
- Social processes can look very different but a log frame doesn't have to
- Oppressive practices: M&E, capability traps.
- We are dealing with paradoxes: we do need guiding vision but the key thing was ensuring the structures have meaning and purpose.
- Iterative process required.
- To what extent are our organisational structures meeting our needs? Cheating for now, giving the new meaning.
- We are part of the system: giving ourselves to the power to negotiate and create thier won process.
- Default funding is now projects but institutional funding is far more flexible.
- Relationships are really important if you get a system without the project, contractual basis.
- MSP needed for starting project: downward, upward, side-wards.
- Values related to paprtner: spotting opportunities for expressing some of nthese values.
- Development is about values
- How to recruit. Potential of HR.
Related resources:
- Getting to social (blog post by Harold Jarche, February 2012);
- Documenting change: an introduction to process documentation[1]
- Capability trap