Understanding What’s Producing the Outcomes You're Trying to Change
If organisations already know they have a problem, have invested in understanding it and have undertaken substantial activity in response, why do so many still struggle to achieve the progress they hoped for?
Our experience suggested that understanding the problem and creating sustainable change are not necessarily the same challenge.
Many organisations had become better at recognising systemic racism. They were often less certain about how everyday decisions, behaviours, assumptions and ways of working were continuing to produce the outcomes they wanted to change.
Our theory of change is therefore simple:
Sustainable change becomes more likely when organisations develop the ability to collectively examine, understand, own and act upon the organisational and cultural conditions that are producing those outcomes.
The Five-Stage Organisational Examination Process
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Develop a shared understanding of the issues under examination and the different ways they are currently understood.
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Move beyond identifying disparities and begin examining what may be contributing to them in practice. This includes testing assumptions, exploring explanations, examining evidence and developing a stronger understanding of how organisational behaviour, accountability and decision-making may be shaping outcomes.
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Translate organisational understanding into actions capable of influencing the conditions that produce the problem. Particular attention is given to ensuring actions remain connected to the issues being examined rather than becoming disconnected activities that are difficult to sustain or evaluate.
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Examine the organisational conditions required to maintain momentum once competing priorities, operational pressures and organisational resistance begin to emerge. This includes clarifying ownership, accountability and the practical behaviours required to sustain progress over time.
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Revisit unresolved questions, capture key learning, review areas requiring further attention and ensure important insights are not lost as the process moves towards implementation and ongoing organisational ownership.
Particularly useful when…
you've acknowledged systemic racism exists but progress feels slower than expected
you've invested in strategies, action plans, training or other interventions and are trying to understand what may be limiting their impact
different parts of the organisation have different explanations for the same outcomes
there is disagreement about what is causing racial disparities and what should happen next
you want organisational decisions and priorities to be informed by understanding rather than assumptions
you are considering significant investment, external support or organisational change and want those decisions anchored in a deeper understanding of what is happening in practice
And it can be used with…
leadership teams
HR and people functions
employee networks
operational teams
cross-functional groups
frontline colleagues who have intimate knowledge of how things operate “on the ground”