Reflective Learning

In our complex world, any problem is embedded in a boundless network of interacting problems. We all learned this during the Covid-19 pandemic, when lockdowns led to economic distress, unemployment, hunger, disrupted childhoods, lonely and vulnerable elders.... The problem of combatting the disease spawned an ever-expanding web of related problems. It was, to use Russell Ackoff’s inelegant term, a “mess.”

While we inhabit a world of “messes,” we don’t always perceive things that way. Even those of us who tackle thorny social and environmental challenges have to cut “messes” down to size. We simplify them and render them tractable so we can get on with the business of social change. That is, we construct mental models – theories of change – that provide guidelines for action even though they are inevitably much simpler and much more static than the dynamic, complicated realities they describe.

In practice, theories of change are usually tacit, consisting of beliefs and assumptions that are unspoken and taken for granted. We work with clients to make their theories of change explicit so they can be held up to scrutiny, debate, and empirical testing. This entails a process of reflection to reveal implicit expectations about how programmatic actions will lead to desired consequences. We regard such reflection as a necessary first step in both program evaluation and program planning.