Dear Reader
One of the questions I hear most often is:
Increasingly, I think it is the wrong place to start.
The better question is:
What actually needs to scale?
Because the answer is not always an organisation.
Sometimes it is the evidence.
Sometimes it is the capability.
Sometimes it is the policy.
And sometimes it is the ecosystem around them.
That distinction has become much more important to me over the past few years, both from leading organisations myself and now helping others think about their next phase of growth.
Ecosystems and systems are not the same thing
The terms are often used interchangeably.
I do not think they should be.
Systems change is about changing how a system functions.
Think:
✓ Policies.
✓ Financing.
✓ Incentives.
✓ Accountability.
✓ Decision making.
✓ Service delivery.
✓ Institutional behaviour.
It is often slow, political and difficult to see.
Ecosystem change is broader.
It is about creating the conditions that allow good ideas to emerge, spread and endure.
Think:
✓ Networks and relationships.
✓ Trust.
✓ Shared narratives.
✓ Leadership pipelines.
✓ Funder behaviour.
✓ Collaboration norms.
✓ Data sharing.
✓ Field building.
Put simply, systems sit within ecosystems.
You can strengthen an ecosystem without immediately changing the formal system.
You can also change a policy or institutional structure without creating the ecosystem needed for that change to last.
Both matter. Both deserve investment.
But they require different capabilities, different timelines and different expectations.
And that brings us back to the original question.
So what should actually scale?
Somewhere along the way, scale became synonymous with success.
We have become very good at asking:
"How do we scale this?"
I am no longer convinced that is the right place to start.
A better question is:
What actually needs to scale?
Because scale is not neutral.
Scaling changes culture.
It changes delivery models.
It changes community relationships.
It changes incentives.
It changes what gets prioritised.
Sometimes the very things that make an intervention successful are the hardest things to preserve as it grows.
Sometimes the ecosystem is the answer
When people talk about scale, they often imagine replicating an organisation.
But that is only one path.
Sometimes what needs to spread is:
- The evidence.
- The principles.
- The capability.
- The policy change.
- The financing model.
- The leadership pipeline.
- The relationships.
- The ecosystem itself.
Some of the most influential organisations I know have not created impact because they became huge.
They created impact because they strengthened the conditions that allowed many organisations, governments and communities to succeed.
In other words, their greatest contribution was not building a bigger organisation. It was strengthening an ecosystem that allowed many others to create impact.
That may ultimately create far greater impact than scaling any single intervention.
One final thought
The organisations I most admire are not obsessed with getting bigger.
They are clear about something much more important.
What must never be lost. And what is worth spreading.
Sometimes that will be an organisation.
Sometimes it will be an idea.
Sometimes a capability.
Sometimes a policy.
Sometimes an ecosystem.
The goal is not to make everything bigger. It is to make the right things bigger.
👉 When you look at your own work, what most needs to scale? The organisation? The model? The evidence? The capability? Or the ecosystem around it?
Warmly,
Liz
Strategic Advisor | Former CEO | Founder, Volante
Based in Kenya, available globally
