FSG Webinar - Embracing Emergence 5/1
April 18, 2013 /3BL Media/ - Collective impact – when nonprofits, governments, businesses, and the public are brought together around a common agenda to focus on a specific social problem – has been enthusiastically embraced by organizations around the world. However, many participants pursuing collective impact have become frustrated with their inability to make progress tackling complex social problems. One of the greatest obstacles has been that practitioners have been expecting predetermined solutions.
Predetermined solutions are better suited for discrete programs but rarely work under conditions of complexity. Collective impact works differently – the process and results are emergent rather than predetermined. It is an entirely new model of social progress.
Please join us to explore how to address complexity in collective impact and create an intentional process that allows for effective solutions. John Kania, coauthor of SSIR’s “Embracing Emergence: How Collective Impact Addresses Complexity,” will discuss this next phase in the collective impact dialogue and define “emergence,” a term that describes events that are unpredictable and which no one organization or individual can control. He will be joined by Blair Taylor, who share from experience the implications of complexity and emergence in Memphis Fast Forward’s work, and Mark Cabaj, who will cover developmental evaluation in collective impact.
This lively discussion, moderated by SSIR Managing Editor Eric Nee, will focus on why collective impact is a relevant approach for complex problems and how leaders of successful collective impact initiatives have embraced a new way of collectively seeing, learning and doing that marries emergent solutions with intentional outcomes. The webinar will help participants understand the implications of complexity and emergence in their work and how developmental evaluation can advance collective learning to reach better and more robust outcomes.
We hope you’ll join us and tweet along using the hashtag #collectiveimpact.
About FSG:
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 foundations, corporations, nonprofits, and governments – to develop more effective solutions to the world's most challenging issues. FSG helps organizations, individually and collectively, achieve social impact by discovering better ways to solve social problems. For more information on FSG, visit us online at www.fsg.org
About SSIR:
Stanford Social Innovation Review is an award-winning magazine and website that covers cross-sector solutions to global problems. SSIR is written for and by social change leaders in the nonprofit, business, and government sectors who view collaboration as key to solving environmental, social, and economic justice issues. Published at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at Stanford University, SSIR bridges academic theory and practice with ideas about achieving social change. SSIR covers a wide range of subjects, from microfinance and green businesses to social networks and human rights. Its aim is both to inform and to inspire. Visit www.ssireview.org for more information.
