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Cass Business School Briefing Using Theory of Change to challenge yourselves to get the right strategy for your Union Caroline Copeman, Principal Consultant at City University London’s Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness (CCE), along with Mo Wiltshire, Chief Executive of King’s College London Students’ Union explore a recent initiative to apply Theory of Change to a Students’ Union: sharing both the process and their learning. We’ve had a rich and eventful experience of using Theory of Change to help develop a strategy, and want to share our learning. This briefing will describe what we mean by Theory of Change (ToC), explore our learning about why, how and when to use it, and whom to involve, and then describe the timeline and process for the KCLSU strategy development process. Firstly some information about what it is: What’s Theory of Change (ToC)? It’s a tool to help you 1. Define the change you seek to bring about as a result of the work you do as an organisation, and then 2. Use this understanding to define the causal connections required to bring this change about. In essence you ask ‘what’s the problem we exist to resolve?’, then ‘what will the changed word look like?’, then ‘what will it take’ to bring about the change we seek?’ (this is the Change bit of the ToC). As importantly, when mapping the causal connections required to bring about the change, you define the assumptions upon which you base your definitions – your beliefs about the world and how things tick and hang together (that’s the Theory bit of the ToC – your theory as an organisation about how things work, what’s right and what’s wrong). An example from the work with KCLSU is: The change KCLSU seeks to bring about is that: Every member leaves King’s having fulfilled their potential, ready and able to shape tomorrow’s world. The theory (assumptions) that are woven through and underpin the delivery of this vision of a changed world are that: Education is of value to society as well as to the individuals taking part in it Education is most fulfilling when it’s a social experience The more diverse the social experience the more valuable it will be Involvement in shaping an experience makes it more fulfilling There is a hierarchy of needs to be met Being accepted for who you are at College is a basic need Once you have a definition of the change you exist to create, supported by a map of what it will take to bring the change about, reinforced by a definition of your basic assumptions about the world – you’ve got a perfect backdrop for your strategy. You’ve defined why you exist, what you need to do, and probably who you need to do it with. Because it’s rare for an organisation to build a ToC that they can deliver on their own: you almost always have to join up with others because the task is so huge. Some of our learning about why do it and when In a moment we’ll talk about what we did, and how we did it. But first some learning, especially learning about why to do it, and when: ToC is in essence a tool for creating a different kind of strategic conversation – it helps you ask different questions: so much of strategy development can involve ‘confirmation bias’ (we seek evidence to support our beliefs and ignore other messages) so any tool that shakes you up and exposes your thinking to challenge can be helpful. If you always ask the same questions of the same people, you’re likely to get the same answers, and keep on doing the same old things whether they’re right or not! ToC can affirm your current strategy – it may also open up new strategic avenues… So: Use ToC when you need to refresh and really review your strategy from scratch Use ToC when you want to shake yourself up and challenge your assumptions, or make sure everyone shares the same assumptions about why you exist (to do what?) Get the right people in the room – diversity of mindset is really important – if you all think the same, you won’t shake yourselves up and really challenge yourselves; get different perspectives and experiences in the room, including of course, the student perspective Be committed for quite a long conversation: don’t do it if you need to move fast Be committed to sharing with a wide audience as it’s a powerful way of engaging people – don’t do it if you’re not prepared for mass engagement because you won’t get the return on investment Use it to build mass support for a way forward, even if it’s a difficult way forward – so developing a ToC is as much about bringing clarity about what we won’t be doing as it is about what we will be When you’ve got your ToC you then start work on your strategy – it isn’t a shortcut… What we did: our timeline March 2013 KCLSU decided to do a full strategic review – starting from scratch with a (fairly) blank sheet of strategy paper Summer 2013 Dry run with KCLSU, UCLU and Kent SU to test out the process of using ToC as an approach, to see if it would work and meet KCLSU needs Definition workshop with the KCLSU board and departmental leads Staff volunteers recruited to join the group working on The Big Plan September 2013 Big group session to build the ToC (lots of post its, lots of flip chart paper, lots of coffee): What problem do we exist to solve? What will it take to solve it? October 2013 A smaller was set up group to digest and rationalise, and produce a working draft to test out with members and staff Over the page is the top of the KCLSU ToC: our ultimate aim and the five big outcomes or strands of work that will need to be realised to bring this change about: Our change and our theory being tested v 1 (Oct) Every member leaves King’s having fulfilled their potential, ready and able to shape tomorrow’s world Every member leaves College feeling connected to the wider world and ready and able to shape it Every member is an active shaper of their College Experience Every member feels part of the London, King’s (and Union?) community Every member has access to a learning environment they need to fulfil their academic potential Every member is safe and secure enough to focus on making the most of their College Experience November 2013 We tested the ideas with students and staff December 2013 We started to build The Big Plan from the ToC – first steps were to use a departmental lead and staff volunteer group to say: What do we do already? What else could we do? What could we leave to others to do? How will we decide what we should do (as opposed to leave for others or just signpost? (our decision making criteria) Into January 2014 We ended up being able to colour code our ToC map according to: What we should do (pale green) What we should lobby others to do (lilac) What we should signpost (blue) What we should leave to others (red) A colour coded example of one of the five strands of the ToC can be found over the page…. 2.Every member has access to the learning environment they need to fulfil their academic potential (Effective Learners) 2.2 Members understand what their rights and responsibilities are as a learner Members are clear on what the teaching and learning experience will be. Members are clear on their role in the learning experience E.g. Members are clear what to do if they are dissatisfied All members have the chance to shape their university experience 2.1 College recognises the importance of teaching and learning There are appropriate Teaching and Learning facilities (physical and virtual) The College has enough good quality, trained and valued teachers There is interaction between disciplines and levels of study within disciplines There is social interaction between disciplines and within disciplines levels of study Teaching and learning is continually shaped and improved based on member feedback There is academic interaction between disciplines and levels of study within disciplines January 2014 Now that we were clear about what we needed to do to bring the change about (including what we would do ourselves, lobby others to do, signpost, and importantly STOP doing – because it made no contribution for us to do it), we could then start to build the detail of the Big plan. We brought more analysis into the picture: PESTLE, College strategy, financials, usage etc. February 2014 The board and departmental leads met to bring the whole thing together and resolve the three big outstanding questions, which for KCLSU were: Do we run commercial services to fund work that achieves our change or as part of achieving the change itself? How can we improve or think differently about how we engage members in decision-making? How far do we invest in our ethics and for example become a Living Wage employer? The three big questions were not new to KCLSU – and we knew they needed to be answered even before we started ToC process. However, they were three of a number of other questions that were bubbling along, and going through the process of developing the ToC helped us answer all bar these three. Some refer to the ToC tool as a logic model – (i.e. if you believe A needs to happen then it follows you will do B), and we certainly found this to be the case as it helped us to logically answer the majority of the questions we had and populate the bulk of our strategic plan. We informally called this the ‘the no-brainer’ part. As an example, ensuring students basic needs are met is the foundation of our work, but our mapping showed big gaps in areas we need to deliver on or more actively signpost to. It was therefore logical that we needed to recruit an additional caseworker to increase capacity, develop how we delivered our pre-arrival information on rights and responsibilities, and invest in our ability to signpost to others working in the area. These three ‘big outstanding questions’ that were left were ones where we can see the answer would impact profoundly on the rest of the organisation, but our logic pointed us in a number of different directions. It therefore became clear that these were the issues that needed in-depth discussion and deliberation with the Board and management team. Overall, a ToC does not write a strategy itself, but it does provide a tool for checking back on what you are here to achieve as a Union and a test to apply to future opportunities when they arise. It allowed us to think bigger and to think through all the ways in which changes need to be achieved – from cultural attitudes, programme design, partnership relationships and deciding when actually it is best left to others to deliver the change needed to deliver. It definitely gave us confidence as an organisation that our direction is the right one for our members, but it will take time (and some faith) before we will see how far the theory translates into the reality of a more joined up, impactful organisation. And this is where we ended up in July 2014: And more can be found on the Big Plan here. We would be fascinated to hear your thoughts about our ideas to improve strategy development, so do get in touch: [email protected] or @CassCCE