<p>Some choices sometimes remain implicit even though they have a large bearing on the ToC that you develop. Therefore, it’s important to make these choices explicit so that everyone is aware of them. As part of the narrative, you provide here information on the following:</p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div style="display: none;" aria-hidden="true">
<div>Development processÂ</div>
<div>Purpose</div>
<div></div>
<div>Scope</div>
<div>The reason behind the development of the ToC, and how it will be used.</div>
<div>The boundaries of the ToC, including the level and from whose perspective the ToC approach is meant to function, and the stakeholders incorporated in the analysis.</div>
<div>The process you followed to develop your ToC and the planned process for future review and adjustment.</div>
</div>
<h1>Purpose</h1>
<p>The purpose refers to the reason behind the ToC’s development, and how it will be used. We identify five most frequent recurring purposes of ToCs – although these inevitably overlap:</p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div style="display: none;" aria-hidden="true">
<div></div>
<div>Monitoring and<br />
Evaluation</div>
<div>Strategic Planning</div>
<div>Learning</div>
<div>Communication</div>
<div>Stakeholder<br />
Engagement</div>
<div>ToCs help organisations to practically map the change process and its expected outcomes and facilitate project implementation. They create a shared understanding so that everyone understands their role in the bigger picture.</div>
<div>ToCs allow organisations to communicate how, why and under what circumstances they will be successful. They allow speaking with internal and external partners about the organisation from the perspective of societal value creation. The combination of visualisation and logic can be very concrete and engaging.</div>
<div>ToCs are the product of dialogue and co-creation with stakeholders. They bring the power of consensus, co-creation and group processes.</div>
<div>Stakeholder EngagementÂ</div>
<div>ToCs provide a framework for measurement. They articulate expected change processes and outcomes that can be reviewed over time. This allows organisations to assess their contribution to change and to revise their ToC.</div>
<div>Monitoring and Evaluation</div>
<div>ToCs help people to clarify and develop the theory behind their organisation. This relates to an understanding of ToC as a thinking tool.</div>
<div>Learning</div>
</div>
<h1>Scope</h1>
<p>The scope represents the boundaries of your ToC: what is and what isn’t considered or included as you develop your ToC? The ToC’s purpose will lead the choices to be made here. The scope may include:</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://content.changeroo.com/wp-content/uploads/guidingcontent/customcontent/purpose_scope_development/scope_dimensions/scope-01.svg" alt="" width="406" height="903" /></p>
<p><span class="gc-quote"><strong>Illustration: Better apples &#8211; better quality of life</strong><br />
This initiative brings small and marginal apple growers to organise as farmer associations and companies so that they could add value both in the cultivation and post cultivation process that would enable them to fetch a better price from markets. The overall goal of the initiative is to secure the livelihood of small and marginal farmers who grow apples. The initiative is carried out in four areas. The following exercise was done in one area which covers 22 villages. The participants formulated the boundaries in the following way:<br />
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;» Time frame of the overall project: 6 years<br />
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;» No. of villages: 22<br />
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;» No. of farmer members in the society: 422<br />
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;» Extent of land: 1,000 Acres (approx) spread over four production belts<br />
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;» Production of apples in the area: 37,000 boxes (740 MT)<br />
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;» Production during the last two years: 15,000 – 20,000 Boxes<br />
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;» Four production belts: Kumola, Kantadi, Karala, Mairana<br />
</span></p>
<h2>At What Level and from Whose Perspective is the ToC Approach Meant to Function?</h2>
<p>“Whose ToC is it?” is an important question that the organisation that leads the ToC development process should ask itself. ToCs can be developed for different, though interdependent, levels. Defining this level is essential for the clarity and practicality of a given ToC and its associated intervention.<span class="gc-footnote">Stein, D., &amp; Valters, C. (2012) Understanding ‘theory of change’ in international development: A review of existing knowledge. The Asia Foundation and The Justice And Security Research Programme, <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment/research/JSRP/downloads/JSRP17.Valters.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment/research/JSRP/downloads/JSRP17.Valters.pdf</a>.</span> For example, while a general ToC for an organisation may guide programming decisions, a program ToC may inform a project ToC, and a project ToC informs a project’s implementation on the ground.</p>
<p>Throughout the Changeroo application, we refer to these levels as ‘<em>organisation</em>’, but this therefore also can refer to a project, program, sector, partnership, business unit, etc.</p>
<p>Besides the ToC’s level, you should specify the <em>specific</em> ‘organisation’ from whose perspective the ToC approach is meant to function. Other partners should be involved in developing the ToC, however, it will be the organisation specified here that will use the ToC to guide its decision-making process. In this regard, it is the specific organisation whose ToC it is.</p>
<p>It is important to realize, however, that the ToC is not restricted to what the organisation does and influences. A ToC looks at all the preconditions to your vision of success, irrespective of whether the organisation whose perspective the ToC takes, engages with these preconditions by itself or not.<span class="gc-footnote">See also “<a href="https://changeroo.com/toc-academy/posts/changeroo-tour-academy" target="_self">ToC as an ecosystem that intervenes in a social system</a>”</span></p>
<h2>Stakeholders</h2>
<p>Defining your scope calls for an ecosystem analysis to identify the stakeholders whose contributions, perspectives, motives and concerns are to be considered and included in your ToC. These are the people and organisations that are affected as well as those that influence your vision of success, whether positively or negatively, and whether intentional or unintentional.</p>
<p>This may just be a couple of sentences listing these stakeholders and the reason for including them. But you can also include your full analysis from which you decided which stakeholders to include and which not. You may also want to mention the stakeholders purposely left out, and how you’ve come to your prioritization of stakeholders. Preferably, this has been a selection process together with other actors.</p>
<p>You can involve the stakeholders in the ToC’s Development process (see the third component of this step). But including a specific stakeholder in the Scope of your ToC, means you incorporate that stakeholder’s role in the actual ToC product. You may include their inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, impact and context elements as part of your ToC, but only if important enough for your vision of success. It is still <em>your</em> ToC, but it also takes into account the interests and influence of other stakeholders.</p>
<p>As a stepping stone, some might choose to start their ToC with only those aspects that their organisation controls. The scope is then more limited. A more ambitious and richer ToC offers a fuller picture of the system that your organisation tries to change. This includes the actors and aspects your organisation has no control over but that do influence your vision of success.</p>
<h2>Questions to Ask</h2>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div style="display: none;" aria-hidden="true">
<div>1/8</div>
<div>&#8220;Who are the key stakeholders that affect or are affected by the change process?&#8221;</div>
<div>&#8220;How do these stakeholders relate to each other?&#8221;</div>
<div>2/8</div>
<div>3/8</div>
<div>&#8220;Which other actors play an important role in the issue / change process? Is their role helping or hindering?&#8221;</div>
<div>&#8220;What is the political and governance landscape like: who can influence the desired changes? Who owns the decisions that really have an impact on the context?&#8221;</div>
<div>4/8</div>
<div>&#8220;How do actors perceive the people most affected by the situation?&#8221;</div>
<div>5/8</div>
<div>&#8220;What are the interests and positions of the stakeholders in the issue? Where do their interests conflict or align?&#8221;</div>
<div>6/8</div>
<div>&#8220;What is the motivation, capacity and opportunity of actors to change? What are their incentives, constraints, drivers, agendas? What might motivate them to do what is necessary to achieve the envisaged change?&#8221;</div>
<div>7/8</div>
<div>&#8220;If relevant: what drives actors who actively cause, reproduce or maintain the problem? (Interest, habit, lack of knowledge, power, greed, etc.)&#8221;</div>
<div>8/8</div>
</div>
<h2>Expert Lenses</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://changeroo.com/toc-academy/posts/expert-power-and-gender-relations-academy">Power and gender analysis</a>: who to include and who not to include in the analysis</li>
</ul>
<h1>Development process</h1>
<p>In this section of the narrative you describe the process you have been through and will continue to go through to create and revise your ToC. What are the processes and mechanisms in place? To what extend does the ToC include the perspective of various actors and in which areas of the ToC did you encounter different views? Etc.</p>
<h2>Expert Lenses</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://changeroo.com/toc-academy/posts/expert-fostering-a-learning-and-co-creation-culture-academy">Fostering a culture of continuous learning and co-creation</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 style="display: block;">Tools</h1>
<h2 style="padding-top: 0;">Boundary choices</h2>
<p>There are different types of boundaries to consider when defining the boundaries of a ToC articulation process. Boundaries need to match what is:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Realistic</strong> in terms of expectations of what lies within the sphere of influence of your organisation.</li>
<li><strong>Feasible</strong> in terms of what the organisation is able to facilitate and manage.</li>
<li>Fitting in terms of <strong>levels of complexity</strong>, matching the type of dynamics and uncertainties involved.</li>
</ul>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-2405 alignnone" style="margin-left: 3rem;" src="http://content.changeroo.com/wp-content/uploads/guidingcontent/example_guiding_content_boundary_choices-300x281.png" alt="" width="300" height="281" srcset="https://content.changeroo.com/wp-content/uploads/guidingcontent/example_guiding_content_boundary_choices-300x281.png 300w, https://content.changeroo.com/wp-content/uploads/guidingcontent/example_guiding_content_boundary_choices.png 420w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<ul>
<li>In line with the <strong>scale of your mission</strong>, in terms of the domain of change in which you intend to make a difference. This may range from small and focused to wide and comprehensive.</li>
<li>Appropriately <strong>connected</strong> to other stakeholders’ activities, in terms of the breadth of range of <strong>stakeholders</strong> to be considered in the picture.</li>
<li>Both right and opportune in terms of <strong>controversiality</strong>. Some issues will be sensitive, also in the process of articulating ToCs. How far to press on before required collaboration will be jeopardised? This also relates to the type of power relations involved and how deep engagement in this can or should go.</li>
<li>Within a relevant <strong>time perspective</strong>, which involves a question of sustainability and how far your organisation needs to ‘think into the future’ to understand change assumptions. It also relates to the level of (strategic) foresight required.</li>
</ul>
<p><span class="gc-reference">* S. Wigboldus &amp; J. Brouwers (2011) Rigid plan or vague vision: How precise does a ToC needs to be? Available <a href="https://www.hivos.org/sites/default/files/e-dialogue_2_rigid_plan_or_vague_vision.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</span></p>
<h2>Venn Diagrams</h2>
<p>A venn diagram uses multiple overlapping closed circles placed around each other to map the most important relations between stakeholders. Each circle represents a stakeholder group. Represent their importance by the size of the circle. Show the level of interaction between stakeholder groups in the overlap or distance of the circles from them. To distinguish whether they influence change positively, negatively or both, add colours to the circles.</p>
<p><span class="gc-reference">* The State of Victoria Department of Environment and Primary Industries (2014). <a href="http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/105825/Effective_Engagement_4_-_Book_3_v3-01.pdf#page=126" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Engagement Toolkit</a>, Book 3, Version 4, page 122.</span></p>
<h2>Prioritising Stakeholders</h2>
<p>AccountAbility offers two tools. The first suggests prioritising stakeholders on the maturity of the issues they raise. The second tool suggests prioritising on the influence and dependence of stakeholders.</p>
<p><span class="gc-reference">* AccountAbility, pages 40-46 of <a href="http://www.accountability.org/about-us/publications/the-stakeholder.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Practitioners’ Handbook on Stakeholder Engagement</a> (Volume 2).</span></p>
<h2>Rich Picture</h2>
<p>A rich picture consists of pictures, text, symbols and icons, which are all used to illustrate graphically the situation. This can be done as a group exercise, where you ask a group to make a drawing of a situation that illustrates the main elements and relationships, including stakeholders and context. It is called a rich picture because it illustrates the richness and complexity of a situation. It is also rich because, it both evokes and records an insight into the situation under consideration.</p>
<p><span class="gc-reference">* Oakden, J. (2014). If a picture paints a thousand words: The use of rich pictures in evaluation. Kinnect Group. Available <a href="http://www.kinnect.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Rich-pictures-in-evaluation-17-Oct-2014.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</span></p>
<p><span class="gc-reference">* Multi-Stakeholder Processes Knowledge Co-Creation Portal on <a href="http://www.mspguide.org/tool/rich-picture" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rich picture</a>.</span></p>
<h2>Social Network Analysis</h2>
<p>Social network analysis is particularly useful for mapping the interrelationship among stakeholders and their behaviour. Such understanding can be used to think about how the “social architecture” can be improved to support the organisation’s vision of success.</p>
<p><span class="gc-reference">* C. Prell, K. Hubacek &amp; M. Reed, <a href="http://sustainable-learning.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Stakeholder-Analysis-and-Social-Network-Analysis-in-Natural-Resource-Management.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stakeholder analysis and social network analysis in natural resource management</a>, Society and Natural Resources, 22(6): 501-518.2009</span></p>


<p>The general narrative of a Theory of Change: the purpose, scope and process followed to develop a Theory of Change.</p>


Step - Purpose, scope and development

<h1>Explanation</h1>
<h2>Strategy Narratives: ToC as a Foundation for Communication</h2>
<p>A Theory of Change offers social organisations an excellent basis for communication and engagement. Societal value creation is what a social organisation is about. To a social organisation issues are strategic <em>because</em> of their effect on its ability to create societal value or in other words their effect on its ToC.</p>
<p>Therefore, Changeroo enables social organisations to discuss the issues important to their organisation from the perspective of the organisation’s ToC and its capacity to create societal value. To this end, six themes can be applied on the elements and relationships of a ToC: <a href="https://changeroo.com/toc-academy/posts/theme-progress-academy" target="_self">Progress</a>, <a href="https://changeroo.com/toc-academy/posts/theme-validation-and-assumptions-academy" target="_self">Validation &amp; Assumptions</a>, <a href="https://changeroo.com/toc-academy/posts/theme-trade-offs-academy" target="_self">Trade-offs</a>, <a href="https://changeroo.com/toc-academy/posts/theme-innovation-academy" target="_self">Innovations</a>, <a href="https://changeroo.com/toc-academy/posts/theme-needs-academy" target="_self">Needs</a>, and <a href="https://changeroo.com/toc-academy/posts/theme-opportunities-and-threats-academy" target="_self">Opportunities &amp; Threats</a>.</p>
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<div style="display: none;" aria-hidden="true">
<div></div>
<div>Shows the potential areas where organisations can strengthen their ToC and where they need to anticipate developments that might threaten their ToCâ€™s effectiveness. Stakeholders express the issues important to them. They add knowledge, ideas, experiences and solutions.</div>
<div>Opportunities &amp; threats</div>
<div>The organisation specifies where trade-offs inherent to the ToC exist and explains the choices it makes. Such trade-offs may include negative side-effects and opposing positive components. Stakeholders may provide solutions and add experiences about how decisions work out.</div>
<div>Innovations demonstrate the uniqueness and inventiveness of a ToC. Stakeholders engage to add information from their perspective about how innovations work out and possibly add additional information about an innovation.</div>
<div>Progress</div>
<div>Using tables, diagrams, qualitative information, case studies, etc., this theme informs about the impact and progress of the organisation. This may include goals, timelines, measurement methods, scope of impact, etc. Impact measurement thus feeds back into the organisation&#8217;s ToC via progress and validation.</div>
<div>Validation &amp;<br />
Assumptions</div>
<div>Trade-offs</div>
<div>The most pressing needs and challenges an organisation experiences to implement its ToC. Stakeholders gain insight in where they can contribute to help raise the level of social value creation. The needs offer (business) opportunities to companies, scientists, etc.</div>
<div>Innovations</div>
<div>This explains the rationale of a ToC, making it credible and persuasive, and explicating its underlying assumptions. This could e.g. include research reports or assumptions about the behaviour of groups in response to events. Stakeholders add their perspectives and critically examine proof and assumptions.</div>
<div>Needs</div>
</div>
<p>Applying a theme creates a wiki-like page in Changeroo dedicated to the issue. Each such page has a title, allowing for easy identification of what the page is about, and is flexible in content.</p>
<h2>Co-creation and Stakeholder Engagement</h2>
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<div style="display: none;" aria-hidden="true">
<div>Stakeholders can add to a wiki page if the organisation has opened the page up for feedback.Â</div>
<div>A good Theory of Change is a<br />
co-creation between a social organisation and its stakeholders.</div>
<div>Thus, stakeholders engage and social organisations source expertise and resources from stakeholders. The result is a constantly evolving co-creation with stakeholders of a Wiki Report on the societal value creatation by a social organisation.</div>
<div>Social organisations can invite stakeholders with a targeted question to give input and feedback.</div>
<div>Convinced stakeholders bring to surface blind spots, provide variation in perspectives, provide new ideas, and support where possible. Indeed, actors elsewhere in the value chain, community representatives, customers and consumers, scientists, media, etc.; they all hold knowledge and resources an organisation stands to benefit from.</div>
</div>
<h1>Community Guidelines</h1>
<p>To make sure the Changeroo platform is a powerful vehicle for change, we’ve put together a few ground rules.</p>
<p>Content pages focus on consensus, integration of information and objective facts, instead of repetition and endless texts. Social organisations can open up these pages to stakeholder feedback and input.</p>
<h2>Guidelines</h2>
<ul>
<li><strong>Share your expertise and resources</strong> to be of influence and help social organisations move their social mission forward. Seek opportunities to contribute that align with your own values. Present yourself through your contributions.</li>
<li><strong>Learn</strong> from stakeholders’ feedback and improve your understanding of an organisation.</li>
<li><strong>Be constructive</strong> in your criticism.</li>
<li><strong>Be open</strong> to disagreement and listen to other people’s opinions. Change happens when people with different backgrounds and perspectives can participate in a conversation.</li>
<li><strong>Be reasonable, kind, respectful and use common sense</strong>.<br />
Do not use hate speech, do not impersonate others, do not violate others’ privacy, do not bully, do not be unnecessarily graphic, do not spam and do not break the law (which includes respecting copyrights in your posts).</li>
<li><strong>Update</strong> your ToC with developments. When you’re candid with stakeholders and tell them what we do and don’t know and make them part of the process, it’s much more engaging for them.</li>
</ul>


<p>What do we mean by "strategy narratives" in Changeroo? An overview and discussion,</p>


Step - Strategy narratives

<p>In this step you extend your narrative with a textual summary of your visualization. Use storytelling to create a compelling change story that explains the change processes and the strategies employed to activate and steer these change processes. The change story thus helps readers understand the visualisation, its main features, and how you are of added value to society. In addition to text, you can also use other types of multimedia to make it more engaging.</p>
<p>Of course, storytelling is interactive and a two way street. Therefore, whereas you build and present the generic core of your change story here, you may want to adapt it to your audience when you are “out in the real world”.</p>
<h1>Elements of a Good Narrative</h1>
<p>Bonchek<span class="gc-footnote">M. Bonchek (2016) How to Build a Strategic Narrative, Harvard Business Review. Available <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/03/how-to-build-a-strategic-narrative" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</span> discusses some of the features to look for in a good narrative:</p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div style="display: none;" aria-hidden="true">
<div>You want a story that inspires employees, excites partners, attracts customers, and engages influencers. A story that is concise but comprehensive. Specific but with room to grow. One that defines your organisationâ€™s vision, communicates the strategy, and embodies the culture.</div>
<div>A strategic narrative is a special kind of story. It says who you are as an organisation. Where youâ€™ve been, where you are, and where you are going. How you believe value is created and what you value in relationships. It explains why you exist and what makes you unique.</div>
<div>The context of the narrative must be a human, not an institutional, relationship. People want to get a sense of your organisation as if it were a person. Human relationships require reciprocity and authenticity. The narrative should say who you are, not just what you do.</div>
<div>The cornerstone of a strategic narrative is a shared purpose. This shared purpose is the outcome that you and your stakeholders are working toward together. Itâ€™s more than a value proposition of what you deliver to them. Or a mission of what you do for the world. Itâ€™s the journey that you are on with them. By having a shared purpose, the relationship shifts from consumer to co-creator.</div>
</div>
<h2>Further reading</h2>
<p><span class="gc-reference">* E. Bridger (2015) Creating your strategic narrative, in: Employee engagement, London: Kogan Page Limited, pp 92-95. Available <a href="http://engageforsuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Strategic-narrative-how-to-guide.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</span></p>
<p><span class="gc-reference">*Story Telling for Good, <a href="https://storytelling.comnetwork.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://storytelling.comnetwork.org</a></span></p>
<h1>Other Information to Present</h1>
<p>The content page containing your narrative is flexible, so you can be creative in what else to include, such as:</p>
<ul>
<li>A summary of the highlights from the strategy narratives you’ve written</li>
<li>A summary of your latest impact report</li>
<li>Information about partnerships</li>
<li>The most important assumptions underlying your ToC</li>
<li>Timelines (targets to be achieved before a certain date)</li>
<li>Illustrations using multimedia</li>
</ul>


<p>In this step you extend your narrative with a textual summary of your visualization and any other relevant information you wish to present.</p>
