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In this lecture, we're going to focus a little bit more on,

how do you actually use a logic model?

We've defined what a logic model is, but you're probably wondering well,

how do I work it into my social entrepreneurship agenda?

I think there are a lot of ways you can use logic models,

and I'd like to start by at least highlighting the most important ones.

First, a logic model can be a critical starting point for

you in planning what it is you're going to accomplish.

A logic model is the starting moment where you say,

here's what we want to create in terms of value and how are we going to get there.

All too often people start strategic planning without even

knowing what the value creation objective is.

A logic model is a moment where you are going to stop and

say, here's what we're trying to accomplish.

And then we're going to plan to figure out how we're going to get the resources,

how we're going to do the work,

how we're going to get the results we need to get to our social impact.

So from a planning perspective, I think the logic model is a great first step for

a social entrepreneur.

But once you get in to the actual work that you're going to undertake,

a logic model is powerful tool for guiding implementation, for

helping you see as you're doing the work, are you on track?

Have you accomplished what you said you were going to accomplish?

Are you hitting the goals and the objectives that you set forward?

Logic model can be checked back to, it can be referred to,

it can be used during the implementation process to understand, are you on track?

A logic model is a very nice starting point for performance measurement.

If you construct a logic model well, you will have defined outputs and

outcomes that can be integrated into a broader performance measurement agenda.

Another very useful element of a logic model, during the startup phase and

even during the development phase of social enterprise,

is using it to secure external support.

You can take a logic model to a funder and integrate it into a proposal and

they'll have a much clear sense of what it is you're trying to accomplish.

And for a social entrepreneur, having the ability to explain to the funding

community what it is you want, what it is you propose to do, and

to be able to do it clearly, it's going to give you a huge competitive advantage.

Too many proposals are written in long boiler plate form with huge narratives

that funders just don't have the patience to go through.

The logic model will give you a way of securing support by stripping away all of

that noise and getting down to what really matters.

But I think the most powerful and last use of a logic model

is within your group of collaborators,

partners, and people you're marshaling to help you get to your objective.

The logic model is the moment where you can get agreement, alignment.

You can get people on the same page with a logic model,

because it takes away any possibility that there's confusion

about what the organization is trying to accomplish.

It drives people to agreement, internal alignment and it increases

the capacity of the enterprise you're designing to actually achieve its results,

because people are not going to be operating inside this organization with

different agendas, different visions of what the objectives are.

It's all going to be clear, everyone's going to see what the objective is, and

that's a very powerful thing in the social sector, because there's the possibility,

a very real possibility people have different agendas,

different interpretations of mission and strategy.

The logic model stripped that away for you.

So realistically, there are a couple of immediate obstacles that you have to

confront, but there's one big one I really want to focus on, and

that is that logic models operate in complex systems.

All around the model that you're going to construct for

the social value you want to create, there's going to be noise.

There are going to be external factors, what we might call x-factors,

in the world around you.

They're going to affect what goes on inside the model.

Let's say you wanted to improve student achievement.

They are factors, and you have an idea for a novel, interesting,

new after school program.

There are factors outside the model that you can't control.

Parental participation, public transportation to move the kids to

the location, local support by government officials that may come and go.

There are going to be factors outside the model that you can't control, and

those factors may very well affect your capacity to reach the outcomes and

impact that you want.

In many cases,

the noise outside the system is going to overwhelm the causality inside the model.

But that shouldn't stop you from trying to achieve your impact, because you can

try as best you can, in many cases, to internalize those externalities.

If the bus routes change and

the kids can't get to the program that you're designing,

well maybe you need to implement a mini bus system to move the kids around.

If the family start to disengage, maybe you need a program to educate and

engage the families of the children, so

that they are more supportive of the work you want to do.

The externalities around the model can be internalized.

It requires more work, it requires more effort.

But I want to signal to you that you're not operating in a sealed system, you're

in an open system, with noise all around, the model that you're constructing.

And the difference between a social entrepreneur who is aggressive,

aware, and takes on problems,

versus one that just sits back and hopes, is the entrepreneur who sees those

noise elements, who sees those x-factors, and says, how do I control them?

Which ones are most important,

which ones can I internalize into the model through new activities, new work

that will help me control the causal flow towards the impact I'm trying to achieve?

Let's get real about what is possible.

There three zones in the logic model,

on the front end there's the zone of accounting and administration.

There's nothing wrong with being able to show that the money and

resources you get is actually used for the work that you said you were going to do.

That is a simple accounting and administrative task, it has to be done.

On the back end of a logic model is a research challenge, particularly when

we're talking about long term outcomes and community impacts that are complex.

There, you need a lot of effort to collect data and

to make sure that you're getting to results.

That's often a challenge that is undertaken

in more structured research context.

But in the middle,

that's I think the zone where social entrepreneur really needs to focus.

That's the zone where you're counting very scrupulously all the critical outputs and

you're tracking the short-term to medium-term outcomes.

You're not trying to get everything,

you're trying to get what you can get reasonably, cost effectively, and

in the way that it help you to manage more effectively.

That center of the logic model, that's the zone of performance management.

That's the zone where logic models can help you get data and

will make you more effective in the work you want to do.

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2.9 The Logic Model: How to Use It

Social Impact Strategy: Tools for Entrepreneurs and Innovators

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