Strategy Maps, Logic Models, & Theory of Change, Oh My!

What I wanted to do today was to give an introduction to these three models, discuss when you might want to use one framework and when you might want to use another. You'll probably end up confusing everyone if you try to use all three, but then again, I'm sure there are situations when it's warranted.

Theory of Change

The Aspen Institute defines theory of change as follows: "At its most basic, a theory of change explains how a group of early and intermediate accomplishments sets the stage for producing long-range results."

The theory of change model espoused by Aspen includes the following:

• A pathway of change that illustrates the relationship between a variety of outcomes that are each thought of as preconditions of the long-term goal.
• Indicators that are defined to be specific enough to measure success.
• Interventions that are used to bring about each of the preconditions on the pathway, and at each step of the pathway.
• Assumptions that explain why the whole theory makes sense!

Learn more in this introduction to theory of change.

Logic Model

The logic model is more focused than the theory of change framework. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation defines a logic model as "a systematic and visual way to present and share your understanding of the relationships among the resources you have to operate your program, the activities you plan, and the changes or results you hope to achieve."

The logic model has five components:

• Resources include the human, financial, organizational, and community resources a program has available to direct toward doing the work
• Program Activities are what the program does with the resources
• Outputs are the direct products of program activities
• Outcomes are the specific changes in program participants' behavior, knowledge, skills, status, etc.
• Impact is the fundamental intended or unintended change occurring in organizations, communities or systems as a result of program activities within seven to ten years

Read this guide to developing logic models.

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) uses a close cousin of the logic model. It first ran a Balanced Scorecard, but leadership found it was not providing enough insight into how well the organization was attaining its goals. AACN moved to the Input-Impact Model, also known as I2I, which has five elements: impacts, outcomes, outputs, activities and inputs. Activities and inputs are the Planned Work, and they feed the Intended Results. Each level has its own timeline. Shorter-term outcomes are tracked on one to three-year intervals, while high, societal-level impacts are tracked every three to five years and reported directly to the Board.

Tracey Birosak, Business Strategy Specialist, described the result: “We were able to realign our planned work to our desired results and create new custom reports to help us see the impact of our efforts on our nursing community.” The lesson for any program-level model is the same. Give each layer its own measures and its own review cycle.

Strategy Maps

Finally, the strategy map (as we define it) is a set of cause and effect relationships that illustrate how the people, processes, and partners work together to achieve mission results. The strategy map is a pictorial representation of an organization's strategy and the hypotheses underlying that strategy.

The classic map uses four perspectives: Finance, Customer, Internal Processes, and Learning & Growth. You build it top-down and read it bottom-up. For governments and nonprofits, Mission replaces Finance at the top, and beneficiaries replace customers. The map holds objectives, not measures. As our guide to what a strategy map is puts it, the map is the story, and the scorecard is the data behind it.

A good strategy map will "tell the story of your strategy" and should be comprehensible by people within and outside your organization. Strategy Maps, as the name implies, are focused on the highest-level objectives and strategy of the organization and often will not mention individual programs by name. Instead, the strategy map includes the high-level pillars of your strategy and how you will achieve it.

The City of Vaughan, Ontario, built its plan around a Service Excellence Strategy Map and committed to regular progress reporting on its status. Without concrete data, the city had difficulty showing how it was actually performing. Christina Bruce, Senior Manager of Strategic Planning, said: “ClearPoint allows us to describe our strategy through the initiatives we are working on, measure the success of our strategy, and track the actions we are taking to improve our results.”

Pampa Energía, one of the most important integrated energy companies in Argentina, shows why the cause-and-effect links matter. Before its strategy map, each Power Plant had its own indicators, so benchmarking was impossible and it was hard to decipher cause and effect relationships in results. Pampa rolled out a strategy map and gave each Power Plant a scorecard with the same structure as the corporate one. Each element links to the corporate scorecard, so it is clear how each plant contributes to the plan.

Learn more in this overview of strategy maps.

Which Model Makes Sense When?

The strategy map makes a lot of sense if you are operating at an organizational level and are looking to document your strategy in a way that everyone can understand. The theory of change, on the other hand, is more process focused. If the strategy map represents the "what" of your strategy, the theory of change represents the "how." Finally, logic models operate at the program level and really force the discipline of describing, in a concrete way, how the program will make an impact. I like to think of a logic model as a "business plan" for a program.