”Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” - James Baldwin

In 2012, I did a

review for DFID on how people were working with theories of change (ToC). ToC is still a common approach, and people still face many of the same problems I saw then in working with ToC.

From a methodological point of view, ToC is not difficult to grasp, but from a process point of view, people have struggled to get the benefits they would like. If they approach ToC from a ‘technical’ angle, it can feel mechanistic and not that different to other planning tools, especially close cousins like the Logical Framework, which ToC is supposed to be different from. Many of these tools have become a bit procedural for people and no longer spark problem-solving energy.

But ToC is not just a planning methodology – at its heart, ToC is about having creative, reflective and critical conversations about how we connect with people and navigate systems to seed positive change. A deep ToC discussion might involve difficult conversations, facing up to challenges and confronting assumptions that may be hindering us.

Creative conversation is as important as ‘technique’ in ToC

The experiential and dialogue aspect is why you can learn all about ToC from a book, but you won’t really get a feel for it until you take the plunge and try to facilitate a ToC discussion yourself.

Going back some years to 2015, I'm so proud to have contributed to a set of guidelines on how to facilitate theories of change (produced for Hivos, an NGO based the Netherlands). Co-authored with Marjan Van Es and

Irene Guijt, our aim was to give people practical thinking tools and approaches to help them design and facilitate their own ToC processes. The guidelines themselves flowed from an inspiring learning journey with ToC practitioners from Hivos, the Centre for Development Innovation and others.

Over the years, many people have told me how helpful they find these

ToC guidelines. So I'm sharing them again so that others can use them, figure out their own ToC approach and dive confidently into the dance of change.