Supporting change in multi-actor settings

Responding to complex social and environmental challenges takes more than good ideas. It requires ways of working that are reflective, context-sensitive, and able to evolve as understanding grows.

Supporting change is not only about encouraging people to act differently. It also involves how people understand the situation, whose perspectives are included, what conditions enable or constrain action, and how groups learn together over time. In complex settings, change work often begins with framing the issue well enough that people can see what they are dealing with before moving too quickly to solutions.

As a connecting hub across this site, this section draws together resources that support change in complex, multi-actor settings. It brings ideas from systems thinking, collaboration, facilitation, design, adaptation and learning into conversation, helping practitioners work with evolving conditions and multiple perspectives over time.

The pages below are organised as connected resource areas, each focusing on a different dimension of change practice. Together, they offer practical frameworks, tools and reflections to support strategy, strengthen facilitation, guide behaviour and practice change, support adaptation, and help groups build shared direction.

Explore supporting change resources

Use this section to find the most relevant starting point, whether you are shaping shared direction, facilitating collaboration, supporting behaviour or practice change, designing with others, working with uncertainty, or helping change travel across places and systems.

• If you are shaping strategy or shared direction
  Start with Strategic planning and direction setting for resources on problem framing, direction setting, futures thinking, conceptual modelling and adaptive strategy.
• If you are facilitating collaborative work
  Go to Facilitation guides, tools and techniques for resources on designing meetings, workshops and longer-term group processes.
• If you are supporting behaviour or practice change
  Explore Behaviour change and Practice change for approaches that connect individual action with wider social, cultural and institutional conditions.
• If you are designing with others
  See Design thinking and co-design, and Systemic design for approaches that support creative, participatory work in complex settings.
• If you are working with adaptation and uncertainty
  Explore Climate adaptation and Adaptive management for resources on learning, adjustment and decision-making under changing conditions.
• If you are helping change travel across places or systems
  Go to Approaches to scaling in complex settings for resources on scaling without reducing change to simple replication.

Browse the supporting change resource areas

The starting points above help visitors move quickly into the part of the supporting change material that best matches their current task. The sections below provide a fuller map of the resources on this site, organised around the main areas of change practice.

Strategic planning and direction setting
Provides tools and perspectives to support collective direction-setting in complex environments. Includes guidance on visioning, uncertainty, and building strategic clarity over time.

• Problem framing: why how we define issues shapes action – explores how the way an issue is framed shapes what becomes visible, who is involved, what knowledge is valued, and what kinds of action seem possible.
• Conceptual modelling – Offers guidance on mapping mental models and system relationships to clarify complex challenges.
• Futures, foresight, scenarios and visioning – Explores ways to engage communities and teams in exploring possible futures and setting shared direction.
• Is the system complicated or complex? – Helps distinguish between different types of challenges to select appropriate strategies.

Facilitation guides, tools & techniques
Offers practical resources to support effective facilitation, both in-person and online. Covers methods for guiding group work, supporting learning, and navigating difficult conversations.

• Managing virtual teams – Offers tips and practices to support collaboration, trust, and productivity in distributed and hybrid teams.
• Managing virtual meetings – Provides guidance for designing and running online meetings that are inclusive, engaging, and outcome-focused.

Behaviour change
Focuses on understanding what shapes people’s actions and creating conditions where helpful behaviours become more likely. The sub-pages cover behaviour change frameworks and tools (including COM-B and the Behaviour Change Wheel), the role of values, paradigms, and identity in shaping action, how professional practices shift over time, and how communication can support engagement and change. The emphasis throughout is on working with the social, cultural, and system conditions around behaviour – not just individual choices.

• Practice change – Shares strategies for supporting change in professional and community settings, including agricultural, environmental, and health-related contexts.
• Communicating for change – Looks at how framing, language, and messaging influence behaviour and engagement.
• Values and behaviours – Explores how beliefs, norms, and values shape action—and how they can be engaged with respectfully and effectively.
• Older guides and literature – Links to legacy reports and foundational texts on behaviour change.

Designing together
Focuses on co-design and systemic design approaches for working collaboratively in complex settings. Highlights creative and inclusive methods that centre multiple knowledge systems.

• Design thinking and co-design – Offers practical guidance for inclusive, user-centred design that draws on multiple perspectives and knowledge systems.
• Systemic design – Explores the integration of design and systems thinking to tackle complex social and environmental issues.
• Co-innovation systems – Explores collaborative innovation in agricultural, environmental, and community systems. Focuses on multi-actor learning processes and partnerships that support integrated system change.

Climate adaptation
Brings together practical resources that focus on the people, practice, and feedback loops that underpin effective adaptation. It highlights guidance to support practitioners, researchers, and policymakers engaging with adaptation locally and globally.

• Managing adaptation – This page introduces key concepts and challenges in adaptation, and highlights international frameworks that provide structure and accountability.
• Tools and approaches – Shares tools and concepts for adjusting strategies and actions in response to changing circumstances.
• Climate adaptation metrics and resilience – This page explores the gaps in indicators and monitoring systems, and shows how MEL and resilience pathways can help us understand whether adaptation efforts are genuinely reducing risk and supporting equity.
• Adaptive management – Supports learning-by-doing approaches that allow strategies to evolve over time. Emphasises structured reflection, monitoring, and decision-making in the face of uncertainty.
• Approaches to scaling in complex settings – Introduces approaches that help change travel in ways that keep meaning, relationships, and local ownership at the centre. A starting point for rethinking scaling beyond replication, with links to companion resources and reflections.

Related topics
These companion pages offer broader perspectives and complementary tools for working with change across systems and communities.

• Social marketing – Offers tools and case studies for designing campaigns and programmes that support behaviour and social norm change.
• Good governance (incl. equity and social justice) – Highlights the importance of governance systems that are inclusive, responsive, and grounded in equity.

Quick answers to common questions

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