Embracing Emergence: How Collective Impact Addresses .
Embracing Emergence:How Collective Impact Addresses ComplexityBy John Kania & Mark KramerStanford Social Innovation Review2013Copyright 2013 by Leland Stanford Jr. UniversityAll Rights ReservedStanford Social Innovation ReviewEmail: info@ssireview.org, www.ssireview.org
Embracing Emergence:How Collective ImpactAddresses ComplexityCollective impact efforts are upending conventional wisdom about the manner inwhich we achieve social progress.By John Kania & Mark KramerOrganizations around the worldhave begun to see collectiveimpact as a new and more effective process for social change.They have grasped the difference our pastarticles emphasized between the isolatedimpact of working for change through a single organization versus a highly structuredcross-sector coalition.1 Yet, even as practitioners work toward the five conditionsof collective impact we described earlier,many participants are becoming frustratedin their efforts to move the needle on theirchosen issues. (See “The Five Conditionsof Collective Impact” to right.)Collective impact poses many challenges, of course: the difficulty of bringingtogether people who have never collaborated before, the competition and mistrustamong funders and grantees, the struggleof agreeing on shared metrics, the riskof multiple self-anointed backbone organizations, and the perennial obstacles oflocal politics. We believe, however, thatthe greatest obstacle to success is thatJohn Kania is managing director of FSG, focusingon inspiring social sector organizations—both individually and collectively—to achieve excellence in their work.He has led dozens of strategic planning and evaluationefforts for foundations, nonprofits, corporations, andgovernments.Mark Kramer is founder and managing director ofFSG, overseeing the firm’s overall vision and direction.He is widely published, speaks around the world, andhas led consulting engagements across all of FSG’s areasof focus. Kramer is also a senior fellow at the HarvardKennedy School.practitioners embark on the collectiveimpact process expecting the wrong kindof solutions.The solutions we have come to expectin the social sector often involve discreteprograms that address a social problemthrough a carefully worked out theory ofchange, relying on incremental resourcesfrom funders, and ideally supported by anevaluation that attributes to the programthe impact achieved. Once proven, thesesolutions can scale up by spreading to otherorganizations.The problem is that such predeterminedsolutions rarely work under conditions ofcomplexity—conditions that apply to mostmajor social problems—when the unpre-dictable interactions of multiple players determine the outcomes. And even when successful interventions are found, adoptionspreads very gradually, if it spreads at all.Collective impact works differently. Theprocess and results of collective impactare emergent rather than predetermined,the necessary resources and innovationsoften already exist but have not yet beenrecognized, learning is continuous, andadoption happens simultaneously amongmany different organizations.In other words, collective impact is notmerely a new process that supports thesame social sector solutions but an entirely different model of social progress.The power of collective impact lies in theThe Five Conditions of Collective ImpactCommon AgendaAll participants have a shared vision for change including acommon understanding of the problem and a joint approach tosolving it through agreed upon actions.Shared MeasurementCollecting data and measuring results consistently across allparticipants ensures efforts remain aligned and participants holdeach other accountable.Mutually ReinforcingActivitiesParticipant activities must be differentiated while still beingcoordinated through a mutually reinforcing plan of action.Continuous CommunicationConsistent and open communication is needed across themany players to build trust, assure mutual objectives, and createcommon motivation.Backbone SupportCreating and managing collective impact requires a separateorganization(s) with staff and a specific set of skills to serve asthe backbone for the entire initiative and coordinate participating organizations and agencies.1Stanford Social Innovation Review
Embracing Emergence: How Collective Impact Addresses Complexityheightened vigilance that comes from multiple organizations looking for resourcesand innovations through the same lens, therapid learning that comes from continuousfeedback loops, and the immediacy of action that comes from a unified and simultaneous response among all participants.Under conditions of complexity, predetermined solutions can neither be reliablyascertained nor implemented. Instead, therules of interaction that govern collective impact lead to changes in individualand organizational behavior that createan ongoing progression of alignment,discovery, learning, and emergence. Inmany instances, this progression greatlyaccelerates social change without requiring breakthrough innovations or vastlyincreased funding. Previously unnoticedsolutions and resources from inside oroutside the community are identified andadopted. Existing organizations find newways of working together that producebetter outcomes.Leaders of successful collective impactinitiatives have come to recognize andaccept this continual unfolding of newlyidentified opportunities for greater impact,along with the setbacks that inevitably accompany any process of trial and error, asthe powerful but unpredictable way thatcollective impact works. They have embraced a new way of seeing, learning, anddoing that marries emergent solutions withintentional outcomes.ensure that all necessary actions are taken bodies that move as one, reacting togetherby the appropriate parties. Administering in nanoseconds to changes in geography,the right medicine to a patient, for example, topography, wind currents, and potentialgenerally gives predetermined results: the predators.4 Scientists have discovered thatmedicine has been proven to work, the just three simple rules govern their interacbenefits are predictable, the disease is well tion: maintain a minimum distance fromunderstood, and the doctor can admin- your neighbor; fly at the same speed asister the treatment. Much of the work of your neighbor; and always turn towardsthe nonprofit and public sectors is driven the center. All three rules are essential forby the attempt to identify such predeter- flocking. When they are in place, it is as ifmined solutions. In part, this is due to the all birds collectively “see” what each birdexpectations of funders and legislators sees and “respond” as each bird responds.5who understandably want to know whatThe five conditions for collective impacttheir money will buy and predict how the similarly serve as rules for interaction thatdiscrete projects they fund will lead to the lead to synchronized and emergent results.impacts they seek.A common agenda, if authentic, createsUnlike curing a patient, problems such intentionality and enables all participatas reforming the US health care system ing organizations to “see” solutions andcannot be accomplished through prede- resources through similar eyes. Sharedtermined solutions. No proven solution measurement, mutually reinforcing activiexists, the consequences of actions are ties, and continuous communication enableunpredictable, and many variables—such participants to learn and react consistentlyas the outcome of elections—cannot be with the common agenda to emerging probknown in advance. Furthermore, any solu- lems and opportunities. Meanwhile, thetion requires the participation of countless backbone organization supports fidelity bygovernment, private sector, and nonprofit the various cross-sector players to both theorganizations, as well as a multitude of in- common agenda and rules for interaction.dividual citizens. In these circumstances,When properly put into motion, theemergent solutions will be more likely to process of collective impact generatessucceed than predetermined ones.emergent solutions toward the intendedTaken from the field of complexity sci- outcomes under continually changing cirence, “emergence” is a term that is used cumstances. As with evolution, this processto describe events that are unpredictable, is itself the solution. And, as with a flockwhich seem to result from the interactions of birds, effective collective impact effortsbetween elements, and which no one or- experience a heightened level of vigilanceganization or individual can control. The that enables participants to collectively seeComplexity and Emergenceprocess of evolution exemplifies emergence. and respond to opportunities that wouldIt would be hard to deny that most large- As one animal successfully adapts to its en- otherwise have been missed.scale social problems are complex. Issues vironment, others mutate in ways that oversuch as poverty, health, education, and the come the advantages the first animal has Collective Vigilanceenvironment, to name just a few, involve developed. There is no ultimate “solution” It is commonplace to bemoan the insuffimany different interdependent actors and beyond the process of continual adapta- ciency of resources and solutions neededfactors. There is no single solution to these tion within an ever-changing environment. to address the world’s most challengingproblems, and even if a solution were known,To say that a solution is emergent, how- problems. As successful collective impactno one individual or organization is in a ever, is not to abandon all plans and struc- efforts around the world are discovering,position to compel all the players involved tures.3 Rather than deriving outcomes by however, the problem is not necessarily ato adopt it. Important variables that influ- rigid adherence to preconceived strategies, lack of resources and solutions, but our inence the outcome are not and often cannot a key tenet of addressing complex prob- ability to accurately see the resources andbe known or predicted in advance.2 Under lems is to focus on creating effective rules solutions that best fit our situation.these conditions of complexity, predeter- for interaction. These rules ensure alignWhen each organization views themined solutions rarely succeed.ment among participants that increases availability of resources and the range ofPredetermined solutions work best the likelihood of emergent solutions lead- solutions through the lens of its own parwhen technical expertise is required, the ing to the intended goal. Consider, for ex- ticular agenda, the resulting kaleidoscopeconsequences of actions are predictable, ample, how flocks of birds are able to dem- conceals many opportunities. Collectivethe material factors are known in advance, onstrate such amazing coordination and impact efforts, however, sharpen a commuand a central authority is in a position to alignment, with thousands of independent nity’s collective vision. Having a shared un-2Stanford Social Innovation Review
Embracing Emergence: How Collective Impact Addresses Complexityderstanding of the problem and an appropriately framed common agenda increasesthe likelihood that communities will seerelevant opportunities as they emerge. Thenovelty of working with people from different sectors brings a fresh perspective thatencourages creativity and intensifies effort.This, in turn, can motivate more generoussupport from both participants and outsiders. The rules for interaction from collectiveimpact create an alignment within complexrelationships and sets of activities which,when combined with shared intentionality,causes previously invisible solutions andresources to emerge.In 2008, for example, the city of Memphis, Tenn., and Shelby County initiated amulti-pronged collective impact initiativecalled Memphis Fast Forward that includesa focus on improving public safety calledOperation: Safe Community. After threeyears, cross-sector stakeholders looked atdata regarding progress in public safetyand concluded they were making goodheadway on two of three priority thrusts:policing and prosecution. Unfortunately,they saw little progress in the third area ofviolence prevention. The parties agreed todouble down their efforts and re-tool theplan for prevention. Three months later, theU.S. Department of Justice announced theformation of the National Forum on YouthViolence Prevention, with federal support available to communities aspiring tohigher levels of performance in preventionactivities. Memphis Fast Forward quicklyjumped into action and, three months later,was one of six communities nationwide tobe selected for funding.The leaders of Memphis Fast Forwardcould not have anticipated and planned forthe new resources that came from the Department of Justice. Had the participatingorganizations been acting in isolation, theymost likely would not have been aware ofthe new program, and even if one or twosolitary nonprofits knew of the potentialfunding, it is unlikely that they could havemobilized a sufficient community-wideeffort in time to win the grant. Collectiveimpact enabled them to see and obtain existing resources that they otherwise wouldhave missed.The vigilance inspired by collectiveimpact can lead to emergent solutionsas well as resources. In 2003, stakehold-ers in Franklin County, a rural county inwestern Massachusetts, initiated an effort called Communities that Care thatfocused on reducing teen substance abuseby 50 percent. A key goal in the commonagenda was to improve the attitudes andpractices of families. The initial plan wasto “train the trainers” by working with acadre of parents to learn and then teachother parents. Unfortunately, in 2006 and2009, the data showed no improvement inparental behaviors.The initiative then decided to try something new: a public will-building campaigndesigned to reach all parents of 7th through12th grade students. The initiative workedThe Franklin County example demonstrates how collective impact marries thepower of intentionality with the unpredictability of emergence in a way that enablescommunities to identify and capitalize onimpactful new solutions. In this case, thefailure to make progress against an intended goal prompted both a new strategy(switching from parental train-the-trainergroups to a public awareness campaign)and a search outside the community fornew evidence based practices (family dinners) that supported their goal of reducingparental risk factors. This clarity of visionalso enabled the initiative to capitalize onunrelated and unanticipated trends in food,Leaders of succesful collective impactinitiatives have embraced a new way of seeing,learning, and doing that marries emergentsolutions with intentional outcomes.with schools to send postcards home, andwith businesses to get messages on pizzaboxes, grocery bags, paper napkins, in fortune cookies, in windows, on banners, onbillboards, and on the radio. The initiativehad also come across an outside researchstudy showing that children who haveregular family dinners are at lower riskfor substance use, so they included thatmessage as well.Leaders of the effort were paying closeattention to the campaign to determinewhich messages had any impact. Throughsurveys and focus groups the initiativediscovered that the family dinner messageresonated strongly with local parents, inpart because it built on momentum fromthe local food movement, the childhoodanti-obesity movement, and even the pooreconomy that encouraged families to savemoney by eating at home. Armed with thisevidence, the initiative went further, capitalizing on national Family Day to get freematerials and press coverage to promotethe family dinner message. As a result, thepercentage of youth having dinner withtheir families increased 11 percent and, forthe first time since the effort was initiatedseven years earlier, Franklin County sawsignificant improvements in key parentalrisk factors.63Stanford Social Innovation Reviewobesity, and the economy that emergedduring the course of the work and amplified their message.In both of these examples, the ongoingvigilance of multiple organizations witha shared intention, operating under therules for interaction of the collective impact structure, empowered all stakeholderstogether—flexibly and quickly—to see andact on emerging opportunities. The intentions never changed, but the plans did. Andin both cases, the resources and solutionsthat proved most helpful might have beenoverlooked as irrelevant had the stakeholders adhered to their original plans.It may seem that these two exampleswere just “lucky” in coming upon the resources and solutions they needed. But wehave seen many such collective impact efforts in which the consistent unfolding ofunforeseen opportunities is precisely whatdrives social impact. This is the solutionthat collective impact offers.Collective LearningThe leaders of both the Memphis and Franklin County collective impact initiativeslearned that they were not making progress on one dimension of their strategies.Of course, nonprofits and funders learn thatthey have unsuccessful strategies all the
Embracing Emergence: How Collective Impact Addresses Complexitytime. What was different in these cases is that the capacities of participants. Although itthe rules for interaction established by col- sounds complicated, such a process canlective impact created a continuous feedback be surprisingly straightforward. The Viloop that led to the collective identification brant Communities initiative in Hamilton,and adoption of new resources and solutions. Ontario, for example, developed a simpleContinuous feedback depends on a vi- two-page weekly “outcomes diary” to tracksion of evaluation that is fundamentally changes in impact on individuals, workingdifferent than the episodic evaluation that relationships within the community, andis the norm today in the nonprofit sector. system level policy changes.Episodic evaluation is usually retrospectiveVibrant Communities’ rapid feedbackand intended to assess the impact of a dis- loops and openness to unanticipatedcrete initiative. One alternative approach changes that would have fallen outside ais known as “developmental evaluation,” 7 predetermined logic model enabled themand it is particularly well suited to dealing to identify patterns as they emerged, pinwith complexity and emergence.8pointing new sources of energy and opDevelopmental evaluation focuses on portunity that helped to generate quickthe relationships between people and or- wins and build greater momentum. Thisganizations over time, and the problems approach has provided critical insights—foror solutions that arise from those rela- individual communities and the initiativetionships. Rather than render definitive as a whole—into how interlocking stratejudgments of success or failure, the goal gies and systems combine to advance orof developmental evaluation is to provide impede progress against a problem asan on-going feedback loop for decision complex as poverty reduction.We have earlier emphasized the impormaking by uncovering newly changingtanceof shared measurement systems inrelationships and conditions that affect pocollectiveimpact efforts, and they are intential solutions and resources. This oftendeedessentialfor marking milestones ofrequires reports on a weekly or biweeklybasis compared to the more usual annual progress over time. Because most sharedmeasurement systems focus primarily onor semi-annual evaluation timeline.The Vibrant Communities poverty re- tracking longitudinal quantitative indicaduction initiative in Canada has success- tors of success, however, the systems arefully employed developmental evaluation not typically designed to capture emergentwithin their collective impact efforts to dynamics within the collective impact efhelp identify emergent solutions and re- fort—dynamics which are multi-dimensources. Facilitated by the Tamarack Insti- sional and change in real t
same social sector solutions but an en-tirely different model of social progress. The power of collective impact lies in the Embracing Emergence: How Collective Impact Addresses Complexity Collective impact efforts are upending conventional wisdom about the manner in which we
Embracing Emergence: How Collective Impact Addresses Complexity Collective impact efforts are upending conventional wisdom about the manner in which we achieve social progress. By John Kania & MarK KraMer JOhn Kania is managing director of FSG, focusing on inspiring
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