Two approaches for combining theories of change and system maps

Many people study and admire high-performing organizations like Toyota and Amazon but struggle to understand how to catalyze performance across their own organizations. To catalyze and foster that performance, you need a system to enable effective action. You need to focus and align your efforts to a valuable target state, develop shared clarity on

An impact map communicates scope, goals and priorities, but also assumptions on two levels. The first is that a deliverable will cause a change in behaviour of an actor, produce an impact. The second is that once the impact is achieved, the relevant actor will contribute to the overall objectives. This visualisation makes impact maps a powerful too

The process of diagnosis and action begins with data collection and problem identification (the what), moves through an interpretive stage (the why) and on to potential approaches to action as a series of interventions into the organization, community, or society (the what next).

• Mapping


• Iceberg model


• Theory of change