What exactly IS a “theory of change”?

Everyone these days apparently needs to have a “theory of change” – although such an expectation has been with us for only a couple of decades. It’s something we can largely thank the development field for – although I suspect the “change management” literature had a big hand. None of the many documents available when you google the term bother to give a history of the term – and it is Wikipedia that comes up trumps with a fascinating history of the phrase 

I spent April musing about “change” because a friend had invited me to do some zoom interviews about the significant change strategy I had been responsible for in Scotland’s largest Region for more than a decade. Here's the first interview - which may take a few minutes to download.

The subsequent posts covered a lot more than the strategy – exploring such things as the wider social, political and context of post-war Britain; the influence of the Johnson’s “War on Poverty”; issues of power and powerlessness; how those with power manipulate us; and the curiously compartmentalised way we talk about change.  

I’m still trying to make sense of what was an important series of posts and offer one of my tables to help me (and my readers) in that process. Just click on the relevant title and you’ll get the post  

Title	Issues covered
Talking of change	Change is normally discussed in a highly compartmentalised way – with psychologists looking at individuals; consultants at organisations and sociologists at entire societies. Only recently have a few people tried to make the connections between these levels
Theories of Change	“Pincers”, “windows of opportunity”, “contagion” and the “laboratory” have been useful metaphors
Tools of Manipulation	The seven ways in which we are kept in line - as citizens, employees and consumers. And the variety of methods used to do so. Although there’s been a huge interest in past decade in behaviour, I haven’t seen anyone else  attempt such a tabulation.
Speak, memory	Recalling the spirit of the 1960s – the UK version of the US war on poverty – participation
The powerless	How the US debate on “community power” helped shape Strathclyde Region’s “Social Strategy for the Eighties”
Pragmatic idealism	the texts which influenced my generation
There are no experts	Offering a tentative explanation of how and why we developed the Strategy – and what its main planks were
Reviewing the strategy	Using a “change management” writer’s checklist to test the Strategy – it works!
Healthy societies	We’ve forgotten the wisdom of 30 years ago

 For those interested in how new strategies are developed - particularly at a sub-national level, here's the recent interview I did with a former colleague in Strathclyde Region about early initiatives