At HLI, we’ve found creating a Theory of Change (TOC) very useful. It was (at least for me) quite a painful process of making explicit various assumptions and uncertainties and then talking through them. I think if we hadn’t done it explicitly we would (a) have made a less thoughtful plan and (b) different members of the team would be carrying around their own plans in their heads.
Going through a ToC process has also helped us to focus on meeting the needs of our target audiences. After developing our TOC, we sent out surveys to some of our key stakeholders to identify their concerns about subjective well-being measures and what new information would make them more likely to use them. Their responses provided the basis for our research agenda and the questions we have chosen to investigate this year.
We have a slightly more detailed version of our ToC diagram on our blog. Thanks for pointing out that it’s hard to find; we’ll think about putting it on a main page.
And thanks for linking to your blog post with the ToC. I’ve now updated the post in light of that (by linking to that post rather than the video, and removing the sentence “I couldn’t quickly find Happier Lives Institute’s ToC diagram on their site, so it seems possible that they no longer consider it valuable, or that they primarily intended it just for internal use and then happened to use it in that one video”).
Having a well-developed Theory of Change has been essential for developing HLI’s communications strategy too. Without org-wide agreement on our route to impact, it would have been impossible to think about the changes in behaviour we are trying to bring about. It influences our audience personas, the communication channels we use, our writing style, and our branding.
Although much of our strategic planning remains internal, I think it’s important to be transparent about our high-level ToC so others can provide feedback, place our research in the correct context, and decide if they want to collaborate with us.
At HLI, we’ve found creating a Theory of Change (TOC) very useful. It was (at least for me) quite a painful process of making explicit various assumptions and uncertainties and then talking through them. I think if we hadn’t done it explicitly we would (a) have made a less thoughtful plan and (b) different members of the team would be carrying around their own plans in their heads.
Going through a ToC process has also helped us to focus on meeting the needs of our target audiences. After developing our TOC, we sent out surveys to some of our key stakeholders to identify their concerns about subjective well-being measures and what new information would make them more likely to use them. Their responses provided the basis for our research agenda and the questions we have chosen to investigate this year.
We have a slightly more detailed version of our ToC diagram on our blog. Thanks for pointing out that it’s hard to find; we’ll think about putting it on a main page.
Very interesting, thanks for sharing!
And thanks for linking to your blog post with the ToC. I’ve now updated the post in light of that (by linking to that post rather than the video, and removing the sentence “I couldn’t quickly find Happier Lives Institute’s ToC diagram on their site, so it seems possible that they no longer consider it valuable, or that they primarily intended it just for internal use and then happened to use it in that one video”).
Having a well-developed Theory of Change has been essential for developing HLI’s communications strategy too. Without org-wide agreement on our route to impact, it would have been impossible to think about the changes in behaviour we are trying to bring about. It influences our audience personas, the communication channels we use, our writing style, and our branding.
Although much of our strategic planning remains internal, I think it’s important to be transparent about our high-level ToC so others can provide feedback, place our research in the correct context, and decide if they want to collaborate with us.