How do social entrepreneurs transform their ideas and intuitions into social impact? It is vital to design a strategy to address a specific social problem. At the heart of this strategy lies a theory of change that guides the social enterprise.
A theory of change describes the strategy under which an enterprise will achieve its ultimate outcome, and in doing this, it prepares this endeavor to face inevitable bumps, challenges, and detours that the social enterprise may encounter. It is a causal theory that designs activities to cause other things to happen, typically changes in people’s behavior that will achieve the ultimate desired outcome. Every step of this endeavor must present strong, causal links and incorporate the essence of the solution to the social problem at hand.
Our task as social entrepreneurs or policymakers is to move a target community in a spirit of collaboration. It is important for our community to get excited to take action in a way that is perceived as easy; our target community must learn, understand and actively work towards this change.
Since behavior is impacted by issues of people’s motives and ability to pursue change, it is important to keep an open approach to behavior. Adjustments to the strategy may be needed to properly address the drivers of social change.
In fact, the best social entrepreneurs and policymakers constantly improve their theory of change and adjust their strategies based on what they learn along the way. Research, testing, forecasting possible problems and impediments, learning from other similar ventures, and creating target community focus groups are some examples of sources of information that promote adjustments to strategy. They are essential to ensure that the things we do get us closer to achieving the social change we want to see in the world. ▣
