Systems change and transformation ideas are everywhere right now. Many people feel that the challenges we face require big, generational shifts. Terms like “systems transformation,” “transformative change,” and “deep change” have become increasingly popular.
In a 2020 workshop on evaluating transformative change, Michael Quinn Patton noted that if changemakers want to evaluate transformation efforts effectively, they must be clear about two things: their theory of transformation—how they believe systems actually transform—and their transformation-oriented strategy—how their work will contribute to that kind of change.
These ideas are similar to, but yet distinct from, mainstream theories of change and systems-change strategies, which often focus on improving system performance rather than reshaping system dynamics. A transformation lens asks a different question: What would it take for the system itself to evolve into something meaningfully different?
This series introduces a few foundational ideas about transformation, theories of transformation, and transformation-oriented strategies. It also highlights a curated selection of social innovation and social change frameworks that change-makers may find especially useful for discussion, planning, management, and evaluation of transformation-oriented efforts. This is not an exhaustive list. Instead, it offers a starting set of tools that practitioners should understand and have in their back pocket when working on initiatives aimed at deep, long-term system evolution.
Guides in this series
Click the dropdown to learn more and download each guide in the series.
1. Getting Our Heads Around Transformation
This foundation paper introduces the core ideas behind systems transformation and summarizes the most current thinking about how deep, structural change actually unfolds. It integrates insights from systems science, social innovation, sustainability transitions, and evaluation to clarify the mechanisms, patterns, and conditions that distinguish transformative change from more incremental forms of improvement. Designed as an accessible primer, it helps change-makers build a shared understanding of what “transformation” means—and what it demands—from those seeking to pursue it seriously.
2. There Is No Such Thing as Fish
This paper offers a sharper way to understand the different types of portfolios that change-makers can employ, challenging the common tendency to treat all portfolio approaches as interchangeable. It outlines how distinct portfolio types embody different purposes, theories of change, management practices, and evaluation needs. The piece concludes with a clear call to action: practitioners must be explicit and intentional about the kind of portfolio they are designing, because different portfolio types support different pathways— and possibilities— for transformation.
3. Is Everyone Making the Same Movie?
Degrees of Systems Change blends the logic of the Three Horizons model with the Three Orders of Change to distinguish between incremental improvement, system reform, and transformation. It helps groups move beyond the tendency to label all efforts as “systems change” by clarifying the ambition behind their work and the implications of aiming for different depths of change. The resource includes reflective questions that teams can use to articulate their ambition, align expectations, and surface the strategic consequences of pursuing different degrees of change.
4. Not Everyone Has to Play the Oboe
This resource explores the wide range of roles required in systems change efforts, extending Meg Wheatley’s Two Loop Framework into a richer map of diverse contributions. It underscores that no organization or leader can “do systems change” alone and highlights the complementary—and sometimes contradictory—roles needed to challenge, sustain, disrupt, or reimagine a system. A set of provocative questions helps individuals and teams reflect on how they can contribute meaningfully within the larger ecosystem of actors pushing for and resisting change.
5. It Takes Time to Save a Rainforest
This resource reframes systems change as a long-term transition rather than a rapid shift, emphasizing that deep change unfolds across multiple actors, strategies, and scales. Drawing on—but adapting—the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) on sustainability transitions, it highlights why systems evolve unevenly over extended time horizons and what it takes for change-makers to work more strategically across niche innovations, dominant regimes, and broader landscape pressures. It provides guidance for accelerating and stabilizing transitions toward more sustainable system configurations.
6. The Innovation Diffusion Curve Revisited
This resource revisits one of the most widely recognized ways of thinking about how innovations spread and reframes it using more contemporary insights about scaling up, out, and deep, as well as different archetypes of spread such as replication, diffusion, and adopt/adapt pathways. It clarifies why different phases of spread require different strategic choices, capacities, partners, and narratives, and offers several practical insights on how change-makers can design and sequence their strategies to support the movement of innovations from early uptake to broader influence and deeper cultural or structural embedding.
7. A Compendium of Resources on Transformative Change
This curated snapshot brings together a selection of influential ideas, frameworks, and resources that help illuminate the landscape of transformative change. It offers a concise, accessible “first stop” for practitioners who want to quickly get oriented to the theories, tools, debates, and emerging practices shaping the field. While not exhaustive, the compendium highlights sources that are particularly useful for understanding how deep change happens, what it demands of actors working within complex systems, and where to look next for deeper exploration.
