Revisiting A Tool for Systems Change that Supports Learning in Foundations

To celebrate CEI's 15th anniversary, we're spending 2024 reflecting on 15 of our most favorite pieces.

What it is

Why do foundations, despite their best efforts, fall short of supporting learning across personal, social, and structural levels? What will it take for foundations to implement and sustain organizational learning?

These questions are at the center of one of our favorite tools: A Tool for Systems Change that Supports Learning in Foundations.

Drawing on the work of systems theorist, Donella Meadows, this tool challenges users to look at foundations as complex systems that can only change if the right leverage points are addressed. Using Meadows’ list of 12 leverage points that can lead to sustainable, resilient systems change, this tool adapts those points to highlight how each one can create stronger learning in an organization. It prompts you to think about where your organization is currently operating, what leverage points you might be able to address, and examples to apply to your organizational learning.

Why it's a favorite

At CEI, we’re uniquely positioned as philanthropy partners and in our benchmarking research to see both the 10,000-foot perspective of the field and the individual experiences of each foundation we work with.

One thing that remains a constant across many foundations: organizational change and transition is a great disrupter of learning and evaluation efforts. Often times, learning and evaluation efforts live in one team—or even one person—at a foundation. When that person or team changes, the learning and evaluation efforts are interrupted or disappear altogether.

We love this piece because it sees organizations as the dynamic and ever-changing systems that they are. It takes a systems change approach and works with the system and its interconnections so that learning becomes embedded in the culture, structures, and mental models of the organization. In doing so, it seeks to build a resilient learning practice: one that can withstand change and adapt to meet the evolving needs of the organization.

What we would add: how to start seeing learning in your organization as a system

Taking a step back to see your foundation as a complex system can be challenging, especially when you’re just one organization of many doing work in other complex systems. The Iceberg Model is a common systems thinking tool that helps identify the trends, patterns, structures, and mental models that drive complex systems. We can use this model to begin to understand how learning operates in our organizations, and what some of the underlying dynamics, forces, and behaviors are that drive or stifle learning.

• At the Event level, we’re asking about what we can see. What direct learning is happening? Here’s where you might consider trainings that are being hosted, or a guest speaker or webinar your team attended.
• Next, we want to look at the Trends & Patterns. What learning practices have been happening over time? This could be annual reviews or evaluations, monthly reflection sessions, or other regular learning practices your organization engages in. These might also be a lack of learning trends in your organization.
• After that, we’ll look at the system’s Structure. What policies, rules (formal or informal), and institutions drive the learning trends, or lack thereof? Think about your organization’s internal learning & evaluation department, what your board asks for, or what each round of grantmaking requires.
• Finally, we want to interrogate the Mental Models. What assumptions, beliefs, and worldviews shape learning at your organization? Maybe learning is championed across departments, or you have an organizational leader that doesn’t see the value in it.

There’s no one way to use this tool. It’s intended to help teams see what lies below the surface and how seemingly standalone events are driven by larger patterns, structures, and mental models. Once we uncover these, we can begin to see the larger dynamics and motivations driving our organization’s desired, undesired, or unintended behaviors.

Using this model in coordination with A Tool for Systems Change that Supports Learning in Foundations will give you and your team a richer understanding of how your organization operates as a system, where learning is situated, and what leverage points can be addressed to create stronger, more sustainable learning practices.