Scaling work in complex settings is about how development and other initiatives grow across places and groups over time, not just about expanding reach. It asks us to pay attention to how ideas travel, how meaning and capability grow locally, and how the wider environment supports change to hold over time. Many practitioners now draw on scaling approaches that blend learning, adaptation, relationships, and system awareness rather than relying on simple roll outs.
This page brings together selected resources that offer practical guidance for those thinking about scaling with care. The collection includes frameworks, tools, and reflections from different sectors that can help teams plan, adapt, and strengthen their work as it grows. These materials are useful for practitioners, researchers, educators, and policy partners who want to support change that is grounded, inclusive, and able to sustain itself across contexts.
The following resources offer different ways to design, deepen, and sustain impact across these elements. Each provides practical guidance for adapting and supporting change across contexts.
Scaling – from “reaching many” to sustainable systems change at scale
In this insightful 2019 paper Woltering, Gaitán-Cremaschi, Bongers, and colleagues reframe scaling as a process of enabling systems change rather than simply replicating pilots. Practitioners will find actionable analytic frameworks, readiness assessments, and key lessons for adapting, deepening, and sustaining innovation across different contexts and sectors.
Scaling out, scaling up, scaling deep
Darcy Riddell and Michele-Lee Moore (2015) explore how practitioners combine “out, up, deep” approaches to achieve durable, systemic impacts. This guide aims to advance systemic social innovation and the learning processes to support it. It is rich in stories, practical insights, and methods for supporting collaborative learning as initiatives move from pilot to wider adoption.
Scaling fundamentals
This 2024 Scaling Community of Practice primer by Larry Cooley and Johannes Linn distills current consensus on scaling for practitioners, emphasizing adaptive, context-sensitive, and systems-aware strategies. It’s a useful entry point for those looking to update or assess their own scaling practices, featuring key questions and decision points across sectors.
Putting scaling principles into practice: Resources to expand and sustain impact in education
Produced by the Brookings Center for Universal Education, this 2023 collection provides concise frameworks, worksheets, and tools for designing and adapting initiatives as they grow. It is particularly relevant for education and community settings, with practical guidance on partnering, adaptation, and building support for change over time..
Scaling-up health: Tools and techniques for practitioners
This 2012 MSI toolkit turns scaling concepts into stepwise practice. It includes mapping tools, readiness assessments, and guidance for mobilising actors and strengthening enabling conditions. Clear visuals and checklists make it accessible, including for those outside the health sector who are looking for structured approaches to planning and support. Although now somewhat dated, the tools offer clear, step-by-step guidance for planning and managing scale-up and remain a valued reference for practitioners seeking structure and rigor in complex, multisectoral scaling efforts.
The art of scaling deep
This 2023 Ashoka Canada report by Tatiana Fraser focuses on the relational and cultural side of change. It offers examples, reflective questions, and practical ideas for strengthening relationships, shifting norms, and deepening impact rather than simply spreading models. A good starting point for practitioners wanting to centre meaning and connection in their scaling efforts.
Science of scaling: Understanding and guiding the scaling of innovation for societal outcomes
This editorial (Schut, Leeuwis & Thiele, 2020) introduces a Special Issue on scaling in agricultural research for development. It reviews three waves of thinking on scaling, moving from technology adoption toward more outcome-oriented and systems-focused approaches. The authors outline three research domains for strengthening the “science of scaling”, including practical tools, enabling conditions, and evidence-informed strategies. Useful for those linking research, innovation, and societal impact.
Supporting a systems approach to scaling: Insights from using the Scaling Scan tool
This 2024 open-access paper by Lennart Woltering et al. reflects on six years of using and adapting the Scaling Scan to support system-oriented scaling in sustainable development. It highlights the value of focusing on context, unintended consequences, and collective understanding, while noting the tensions that arise when shifting from linear scaling of innovations to more systemic approaches. Helpful for teams working in research, development, and applied innovation.
Change is scaled up, scaled out or scaled deep
The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario provides a concise summary of the “out, up, deep” framing, tailored for change agents in healthcare and social sectors. This accessible overview helps practitioners quickly orient to the three dimensions of scaling and decide which pathways best fit their settings.
The Approaches to scaling in complex, multi-actor settings page offers a short overview and responses to common questions. For a reflective companion piece, see Rethinking scale in complex settings: reflections from practice. It looks at scaling through a people and systems lens rather than a rollout mindset.