Embracing Emergence: New Article on How Collective Impact Addresses Complexity
Article discusses how collective impact brings actors together and creates the conditions that enable solutions to complex problems to emerge
March 4, 2013 /3BL Media/ - Complex social problems cannot be solved by a single organization, predetermined solution, or simple recipe. In a new Stanford Social Innovation Review article Embracing Emergence: How Collective Impact Addresses Complexity, FSG explores how collective impact (originally introduced my Mark Kramer and John Kania in 2011) creates the conditions for change to happen differently, when new or unanticipated opportunities emerge from the work being done.
FSG has found that the power of adopting the five conditions of collective impact lies in the heightened vigilance that comes from multiple organizations looking for resources and innovations through the same lens, the rapid learning that comes from continuous feedback loops, and the immediacy of action that comes from a unified and simultaneous response among all participants. And because of these new interactions, we have consistently seen unexpected solutions emerge – previously unnoticed solutions and resources from inside or outside the community are identified and adopted, and existing organizations find new ways of working together that produce better outcomes.
The conditions that govern collective impact lead to changes in individual and organizational behavior that create an ongoing progression of alignment, discovery, learning, emergence and, ultimately, a greater ability to solve our social problems.
Read the full article here.
For more information on Collective Impact, check out our approach page.
About FSG
www.fsg.org
FSG is a nonprofit consulting firm specializing in research, strategy, and evaluation, founded in 2000 as Foundation Strategy Group. Today, FSG works across all sectors in every region of the globe – partnering with corporations, nonprofits, foundations, and governments – to develop more effective solutions to the world's most challenging issues. FSG helps organizations, individually and collectively, improve society and business by discovering better ways to solve social problems.
