A continuing theme on this blog has been the issue of leadership. Many reports and studies call for it, reforms are seen as impossible without it, critical challenges will not be met without it, and we are all ready to point out the lack of it (in others, at least). Despite the fact that leadership [...]
Archive for the ‘Campaigns’ Category
What are leaders really for?
Posted in Accountability, Campaigns, Conflict and peace building, Evolution, Financial crisis, Innovation, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Networks, Self organisation on December 7, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Six Theories of Policy Change
Posted in Campaigns, Evaluation, Knowledge and learning, Public Policy, Strategy on April 20, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Many of us working in foreign aid struggle with the idea of theories of change. The ubiquitous logical framework has an implicit theory of change that we recognise to be flawed, or at the very least, extremely limited. But alternatives are thin and often poorly articulated. A new briefing from Organisation Research Services sets out [...]
Complexity with a human face
Posted in Campaigns, Financial crisis, Leadership, Networks, Resilience, Self organisation on February 4, 2011 | 5 Comments »
A piece in yesterday’s New Scientist titled ‘Can Complexity Theory Explain Egypt’s Crisis?’ explores ideas of complexity in the context of the ongoing events in Egypt. It draws on the insights of two noted complexity thinkers – Yaneer Bar-Yam and Thomas Homer-Dixon. Excerpts are reproduced below with permission: Egyptians are the world’s biggest wheat importers and consumers, and [...]
How do you solve a problem like Malaria?
Posted in Biology, Campaigns, Evaluation, Evolution, Healthcare, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Malaria, Public Policy, Strategy, Uncategorized on January 27, 2011 | 9 Comments »
Big thanks to Alanna Shaikh and Bill Brieger for feedback and comments. Debates about malaria eradication in the aid blogosphere, along with recent scientific evidence, highlight the urgent need to improve our understanding of the complex dynamics of this terrible affliction and to use it to adapt ongoing eradication programmes. A nearly hopeless case? According [...]
When Can Crowds Outperform Aid Experts?
Posted in Biology, Campaigns, Evaluation, Innovation, Knowledge and learning, Natural disasters, Networks, Organisations, Self organisation, Technology on January 3, 2011 | 5 Comments »
When does crowdsourcing work best? New research from the Institute for Human Development provides answers which may be of relevance for aid projects and programmes. There has been a lot written, spoken and blogged about the power of crowds in making decisions. In James Surowiecki‘s bestselling Wisdom of Crowds, published in 2004, the central thesis [...]
Gazing at the fingerprints of chaos in the UK elections
Posted in Campaigns, Chaos, Institutions, Leadership, Public Policy on May 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
In the middle of the 19th century, one of the most widely publicised scientific struggles was to predict the motion of planetary bodies. Using Newtonian mechanics, it was simple enough to calculate the trajectory of one or two planets. However, when a third was added into the mix, the equations become complex and incomprehensible. Steven Strogatz described [...]
Lessons in Distributed Leadership from the Obama Campaign
Posted in Campaigns, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Networks, Organisations, Public Policy, Strategy on December 4, 2009 | 4 Comments »
The Obama presidential campaign owed its victory not to a single charismatic candidate, but to the efforts of a disciplined and motivated organisation whose influences go back to landmark civil rights movements. Many of the principles were consistent with the emerging ideas of ‘complex adaptive leadership’. A recent MIT lecture featured Marshall Ganz, veteran of the [...]
