Portfolio approaches to change: emerging patterns and resources

This post focuses on the recent advancements in a 'portfolio' approach to change work which is happening across multiple organisations, and is an interesting signal in a move away from planning-based approaches.

I was first introduced to the term "Portfolio Sensemaking" by the UNDP work looking to establish the practice in their Accelerator Lab network, in 2019. This grew into an approach across the lifecycle of managing a portfolio, and a series of protocols.

What is a Portfolio approach?

"generating actionable intelligence from a portfolio of existing projects to accelerate the impact of the work"
- UNDP

As I understand it, the core elements of the approach are:

Moving away from single point solutions and toward a developing portfolio of interventions
Moving from a planning (analyse-to-predict) to an experimentation mindset (prototype-to-learn), in line with conventional wisdom about complexity
Move from trying to control an outcome, to starting from the world “as is” and existing assets to probe and adapt one’s way into preferable future scenarios
Ensure evaluation is in place to capture a range of insights and learnings when the interventions are active
Using the insights and learnings from the portfolio of interventions to inform changes and improvement across the portfolio and beyond
Work in action-learning cycles, rather than linear planning-based phases
Focus on capability being distributed across a team, rather than external consultants conducting "portfolio reviews"

This approach has strong echoes of the way we approached our work with Lifehack, which I wrote about in 'How we use experiments to drive insights' here:

More broadly, it appears to be an attempt to develop a methodology / practice to build on top of the efforts social labs (and other fields) made to increase the adoption of prototyping and experimentation culture, to tackle social and environmental complex challenges.

Who is using Portfolio Sensemaking?

So far, I have seen this approach being talked about by:

UNDP Accelerator Labs
Climate-KIC
Dark Matter Labs
Lifehack
Sitra
Chôra Foundation
Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (OPSI)
Dan Hill
Cognitive Edge

Who have I missed? Drop me a line on the chat in the bottom right.

Articles & Resources

This section aims to curate some of the articles and resources I've found most useful and illuminating in understanding and using the portfolio sensemaking approach.

UNDP - Introducing Portfolio Sensemaking

In this post from the UNDP Asia-Pacific team, they introduce the idea of portfolio sensemaking in the context of the Accelerator Labs.

Portfolio approaches to tackle complex challenges.

Some notes on the emerging practice of portfolio approaches by leads from UNDP & Chôra Foundation:

Portfolios & Experimentation

The Dark Matter Lab team collective letter about their hopes and aspirations for 2020 (perhaps that became a little more complex than expected...) articulating some of their portfolio approach:

Portfolio Protocols

The UNDP Team share some of their work to develop Portfolio protocols:

Saving the world: A portfolio approach

Rafael Kaufmann with a provocation about portfolio approaches to change:

Launching Labs

Thoughts from the UNDP team about how the Accelerator Labs should function so that they didn't create a culture of innovation on the fringes:

Sitra Portfolio Workshop

This post from Sitra is from the gathering to develop the portfolio approach further, with UNDP and Climate-KIC heavily involved in the participation.

Chôra Foundation

Gina Belle: Dynamic Portfolio Management for System Transformation from Sitra the Finnish Innovation Fund

Sloan Management Review

This article from the Sloan Management Review outlines the portfolio management approach from an "innovation network" standpoint.

Directional Systems Innovation

Climate-KIC outline their move from single point solutions to ecosystems of innovation directed at systems change:

Innovating in complexity: From single-point solutions to directional systems innovation

Sitra 'Portfolio Approaches' - Curated Links

Mikael Seppälä did a great piece of work sourcing and curating a range of links focused on 'Portfolio Approaches to Sustainability', into a Google Doc, which is a perpetual work in progress.

http://bit.ly/portfolioapproaches

Network of Governance & Regulatory Experimentation

Proving that the portfolio sensemaking approach isn't just for shiny innovation efforts, a collective of bright minds (Dark Matter Labs et al) established a network of experimentation for one of the areas most in need of continuous improvement - governance & regulation.

International Innovation Portfolios

Another Sitra post, this one focused on innovation portfolios, internationally.

Transforming the Local Food sector

A post about one of the UNDP projects which is apply the portfolio sensemaking approach to the local food sector in Thailand, during COVID-19:

Transformation Capital

Dominic Hofstetter (of Climate-KIC) outlines how funding may be applied to a portfolio sensemaking approach:

Towards Targeted Systems Change

I wrote about my personal approach to creating a portfolio of prototypes, in the article 'Towards Targeted Systems Change':

COVID-19, Complexity & Leadership

Dave Snowden (of Cynefin & Sensemaker) talking during COVID-19 about how to support leaders to learn and reflect (cornerstones of portfolio sensemaking) and share across a network:

Prototyping Our Future

Written back in 2014, but addressing the idea of portfolios of innovation and drawing on social labs thinking, this free book is a notable early offering:

Participatory City

A catalyst for a wide range of projects rooted in place, to develop a community-level experiment to scale participatory culture by the OpenWorks team:

http://www.participatorycity.org/report-the-research

Portfolio-based Climate Strategy

A thorough look at how deeply Climate-KIC have embedded the idea of portfolio apporaches into their organisation-wide strategy:

EIT Climate-KIC launches strategy for 2019-2022

Leverage Points

UNDP team in Malawi on accepting complexity, identifying possible leverage points and generating learning and knowledge that is fed into future program design:

Snowballs vs Snowflakes

On different approaches to generating value from innovation activities - Chôra Foundation whitepaper on Layering Vs Funnelling:

From Narrative to Investment

The City Flow model developed by Dark Matter Labs, proposes a strategic process for Climate-KIC's "Healthy Clean Cities" initiative, and is a simple, approachable articulation of a portfolio approach:

Developing Public Sector Portfolios

A workshop guide by OPSI which makes resources available to anyone wanting to gather people and get to work exploring portfolio approaches:

A prototype tool for exploring your innovation portfolio

Conclusion

The practice associated with portfolio approaches is growing in nuance and it's happening around the world in many different contexts.

Thankfully there's a reasonably large degree of open publishing about the experiences and findings, especially from the UNDP, Climate-KIC and Dark Matter Labs teams. Hat tips for this.

The next significant step I am interested in, is how these kinds of approaches can be normalised in all organisations which have a stake in tackling complex social & environmental problems. Currently, I'm working for a environmental-focused nonprofit which would significantly benefit from seeing:

a) tangible examples of portfolio approaches, and clear explanations of how they're different and why they might be better suited than current approaches

b) comparative evidence about portfolio performance, especially with an ROI lens, to assist with exploration of funding such approaches

c) pathways for capability building to support exploration of portfolio approaches

I'm looking forward to exploring how we can build on the collective learnings between the development of social labs in the 2010's, and the portfolio approaches which seem to be an evolution into the 2020's. I'm keen to hear from people doing this work in Australia especially.

Portfolio approaches to change: emerging patterns & resources

What is a Portfolio approach?

Who is using Portfolio Sensemaking?