One of the most important themes that resonated with participants attending the Evaluating Community Impact workshop in Vancouver is that community change efforts require a new way of working.  As Mark Cabaj so frequently said, in community change you cannot plan the work and work the plan.  It is much more intuitive and in the moment work.  A better approach is to act, react and adapt.  

Community change efforts are about moving the needle on complex challenges.  Even as you begin to intervene in the challenge, it begins to respond and reshape itself as does the community.  There are some changes that you can anticipate, but frequently, the changes and resuls have splash and ripple effects.  You head into the unknown and the unknowing.  

So, how does this work when funders and others require detailed logic models, strategies and defined outcomes?  It is useful to develop these, but equally important to watch, listen and learn as you go.  If you don't, you will miss out on many important shifts that can be leveraged to move the change forward faster.  

Read more about the lessons learned by connecting to the Evaluating Community Impact tools and resources through this link - http://tamarackcci.ca/resource-library/evaluating-community-impact-2016/evaluating-community-impact-2016-vancouver-bc.  

Do you have strategies you have used to build your adaptive capacity?  Let us know by sharing them here.