How can we use Theory of change in practice?

Here we share a few ideas on how to use your theory of change in practice.

Probably the biggest risk with theory of change is that no-one uses it. Teams invest time, energy and effort in develoing their TOC just to file it away somewhere for occasional use in funding bids and reports. There are plenty of ways teams can use theory of change to keep it relevant and alive. Here we share a few:

As a unifying visual on display.

How? Using an appealing, simple visual that can be displayedin the office or in a virtual shared team space to depict the organisational / programme vision and key impacts sought, can provide an important anchor and reminder of the organisation’s vision. This helps new and existing team members, new clients and collaborators understand the essence of your work in just a few
seconds.

It can also be used during team meetings and away days toanchor discussion exploring whether the organisational / programme whyremains true, or whether it needs updating to meet new sector needs, nuances and/ or language coming on board in the sector.

As a reference document to ensure language coherency among the team.

How? Having articulated the organisation / programme visionand impacts sought requires consensus on key terms and connotations. Exploring and documenting terminology in this way as a team helps to sharpen team understanding and connection to the changes sought. It also provides a solid reference for agreed language and terminology, useful in developing proposals, reports and communication
materials.

As a filter during strategy and programme discussions.

How? When developing organisation strategy and / or new programmes, locating these discussions in the context of the TOC can help filter in and out new ideas and opportunities. The TOC can be used to provide structure for discussions, identify gaps and where adaptations might be needed to accommodate a new strategic direction or programmatic stream. And/or it can be used to
filter out ideas that don’t resonate with the organisation’s overarching vision.

As an evaluation / review tool.

We can use theories of change to support organisational strategy reviews/ project/programme after action reviews. How?

By:

1. using the framework and TOC assumptions to guide evaluation questions design.
2. considering the changes sought and exploring the extent to which these were achieved.
3. exploring whether the assumptions made about how those changes would happen held true. And if not why? What happened instead? And how can we use that information to inform future similar work.

We'd love to hear from you about any other creative ways in which you and your teams are using TOC!