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Here’s a challenge.  Type “theory of change template” into your favourite search engine, stare at your screen for five minutes and come away without a headache.  What comes up is a multitude of multiform flow charts with arrows and links and a whole technicolor set of slides.
Then, as I have over the past couple of days, you could call up some articles on theories of change. On the one hand you will find some over-blown eulogies to how you can change your organization’s effectiveness by adopting a particular approach to theories of change,  complete with those overwhelming templates. And on the other you will find the rather banal:  “An example of a theory of change is: “If we do A, then B will happen because of C.”   

 How do we learn about leadership?   We read books and articles, go on leadership courses, get feedback from colleagues, find ourselves a coach.  We absorb “hacks” like “Seven Habits of..” or “Eight things all great CEOs do” . They are all helpful sources of insight and practice.  . Perhaps we should also spend more time looking around us and absorbing lessons from those who just happen to be truly talented leaders.  This is where we can absorb insights beyond the formulae and rules that we find in consultant-led sessions and journal articles. 

There was an interesting conversation about profit on LinkedIn about a week ago.  In many of my posts and articles on LinkedIn I have stated that in a just economic system investors will have to get used to lower rates of profit than they have been accustomed to, and that excessively high profits are an important part of the explanation for increasing global inequality.

This has resulted in the reasonable perception that I am opposed to profit. I am not, but the conversation forced me to confront the question of what I mean by “excess profits” and how would a “fair” or “reasonable” return on investment be defined.  There is of course no answer to those questions, and it would be frankly absurd to try to regulate, or even create a voluntary code (all the rage these days) placing an upper limit on profits.