Bricolage and Systems Change: Webinar recording

We were joined last week by Emily Gates and Pablo Vidueira in the final webinar in our series on bricolage. Watch the recording or read a brief summary below (developed with AI assistance).

In their presentation, Emily Gates and Pablo Vidueira defined systemic change not as a simple fix to isolated problems, but as a deep, participatory, and adaptive process aimed at addressing the root causes of dynamic situations.

They presented systemic change as a non-linear process involving several key phases:

1. Exploring the situation and envisioning change.

2. Mapping systems to understand interrelationships.

3. Designing portfolios of initiatives that work at different scales.

4. Navigating futures using strategic foresight.

5. Evaluating, learning, and adapting is central to all phases.

They emphasised that success is not a fixed destination but is defined throughout the journey. The speakers emphasize that how success is defined is more important than the definition itself, requiring a participatory process that includes multiple dimensions and values.

They argued that evaluating such change requires bricolage—the pragmatic and context-driven combination of different methods—to navigate complexity and engage diverse perspectives.

Rather than providing a rigid roadmap, they outlined five core design considerations for a collaborative "evaluative inquiry":

1. Purpose: Being clear on why the evaluation is being conducted (e.g., for accountability, learning, or adaptation).

2. Questions: Framing genuine questions that stakeholders are invested in answering.

3. Value Bases: Explicitly defining what success and value mean in the specific context.

4. Evidence: Thoughtfully combining different forms of evidence (the bricolage piece) to answer the questions.

5. Sense-making: Engaging in a collective process to interpret the findings and determine the next steps.

During the discussion, the presenters and OMLC Coordinator, Simon Hearn, connected these concepts to Outcome Mapping:

• OM's Strengths: OM naturally aligns with a systems perspective by shifting focus from an intervention's goals to a collective vision for the system and the behaviors of different actors ("boundary partners").

• Existing Bricolage: The development of Outcome Harvesting (OH) is an example of bricolage. OH was created to capture emergent outcomes in complex environments where a pre-defined theory of change (as used in OM) might be too rigid.

• Future Bricolage: A potential area for future bricolage is combining OM with methods for "navigating futures," such as scenario planning, to strengthen strategic adaptation.