BackThe social development sector is an uncharted territory for my mom. She has no idea about action plans, relationship building, risk management or logframes. The only thing she would ask me when I was working at the UN was, “Where is the impact of the work visible?”
Indeed, I strongly believe my mom’s reasoning is correct – because we sometimes forget that the focus should be not on how much we’ve talked, planned, pitched and reciprocated, but on how much change we’ve created.
Change is not that straightforward though. Problems we as social development professionals try to target grow fast and mutate even faster, surface differently in different contexts and affect all of us in one way or another. Exponential problems require exponential response if we are on a mission to create change that sustains.
Think Collective, at the Centre for Exponential Change, aims to bring people together to think about the exponential change ideas outlined in Think books. These ideas are based on the co-travelling journey that Societal Thinking took with 500+ organisations in 20+ countries to find “what works at scale, in diverse social problems.” It offers space for us to pause, reflect and reimagine how we can tackle social problems differently. By “differently,” I mean stepping outside the usual bubble we tend to stay in, exploring our position within the broader ecosystem of our work, and crafting new approaches.
Truly, it’s not easy. But rethinking what we do and how we do it is often a recurring task if we are to stay abreast with a world that is constantly changing and where wicked problems get even more wicked by the day. Think Scale, Think Speed, and Think Sustain play the role of companions for our reimagination journey. They are not the typical books we read from the first to last page, following the suggested order of pages. Any page we open offers food for thought drawn from Societal Thinking’s knowledge and co-travelling experience with over 500 change leaders.
One might feel like the ideas sound familiar. Perhaps, they mirror something one was thinking about but didn’t have a chance to articulate. Or maybe it’s a thinking one has already been trying to unfold for themselves and their mission partners, but didn’t use this particular jargon. There is also a chance one has been working in the social sector for a while but is completely new to exponential change ideas. In any case, the Think Books might resonate with readers no matter where in the journey they are and who knows, even nudge them to imagine new possibilities and/or design for scale.
Think Collective, in simple words, is an initiative that tries to help social development practitioners take a step towards inducing change so large that it is visible to everyone, even regular people like my mom. It is a community for thinkers and doers, for the curious minds and those questioning the existing status quo, each in their own domain.
Leading Think Collective, I become extremely happy to hear the stories of how an idea ‘clicked’ for someone. I facilitate conversations to help people own the exponential change narrative, hoping for it to become organic to their everyday work. It takes time, no doubt. But no societal shift happens overnight. Ideas can’t be forced – your intrinsic motivation and state of mind matter, and your creativity will strive when there’s enough freedom to bounce around and see how you can own them.
If the moment feels right for you, I warmly invite you to explore Think Books. I’d love to hear what treasures you uncover within them – and within yourself at polina@societalthinking.org
