It is a huge conundrum for a leadership culture that has been trained to value quick wins, power, profit and prestige. The culture must shift to a heart-centred leadership that puts love for the living world first. Navigating that shift is the defining challenge of our time.
We tend to think of organisations as being more like machines than living systems. We speak of “running the organisation”, “owners of the business” and leaders who “drive change”. The language is appropriate for a car.
Organisations that value their reputation, their legacy and that want to be on the right side of history need a story about how they are contributing a positive impact. They need a story that they can tell with a sense of pride and that can bear external scrutiny.
An Introduction to Theory of Change Organisations typically have a stated purpose, a written strategy a set of activities and procedures for getting things done. However, many organisations will struggle with getting consensus on the story of how what they do moves them closer to their purpose. This is where Theories of Change are useful.
Many of the conflicts encountered in organisations arise from one-sided thinking. From being blind to interdependencies.
Responding to events does not require a lot of thinking. However, engaging with patterns requires a capacity to think broadly and comprehensively – across time and space.