ADOPT (Adoption and Diffusion Outcome Prediction Tool) has been designed to increase understanding of factors influencing adoption of non-contentious mainstream agricultural innovations in developed countries. It “evaluates and predicts the likely level of adoption and diffusion of specific agricultural innovations with a particular target population in mind”. It “uses expertise from multiple disciplines to make […]

Purpose: To provide more than 120 tools and techniques for managing “the people side of change processes” in personal, team and larger systems change. Description: There are three major sections covering: personal change change in teams, especially in ways of working together larger systems change, mostly focused on organisations. Some tools are able to be […]

Purpose: Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a method, a theory of action, a dialogue process, and a whole of system concept that brings together members of an organisation to clarify, develop and integrate their visions about their joint endeavours. The aim is to build on something in the organisation that works well and that can move the organisation to a higher level of goal attainment to strengthen the future of the organisation.

Purpose: To provide an introduction to creating powerful messages, also known as ‘framing.’  Description: Key elements of framing are highlighted. The characteristics of a good frame are: It is ‘sticky’ – in other words the message is powerful and simple The person hearing or seeing it intuitively agrees with it There is a ‘villain’, i.e., […]

Ten aspects of interdisciplinary research are covered, with the guides providing easy access to best practices for a) developing, reviewing, funding and evaluating proposals, b) supervising PhDs, as well as c) various aspects of research management. A link to a PDF file of each guide can be found on the following webpages: Short Guide to […]

The methods in the td-net toolbox for co-producing knowledge are useful for bringing together different perspectives on a problem, recognising that not only individuals but also social groups have different ways of thinking about issues. One method (soft systems methodology) covers the whole process, while the others cover specific aspects. The aim is to provide […]

Purpose: To provide those helping communities "identify and adopt more sustainable practices" with a range of on-line resources that support "social learning and constructive action in multi-stakeholder settings." Description: The resources are organised under the following categories: Social learning, including systems thinking, building networks and knowledge management; Planning, monitoring and evaluation (PM and E); Collaboration/engagement, including stakeholder mapping and analysis and working across cultures; Supporting change; Research, including participatory action research and managing integration; Sustainable development.

The RAPID Outcome Mapping Approach (ROMA), “comprises a suite of tools that any organisation can use at any stage in their policy engagement process to improve how they diagnose the problem, understand the types of impact their work could have on policy-making, set realistic objectives for policy influence, develop a plan to achieve those objectives, […]

Purpose: To provide an overview of multistakeholder partnership processes, along with 60 tools useful for key aspects of those processes. Description: Working with a range of people and organisations to tackle real-world problems and achieve change is the essence of multistakeholder partnerships. Multistakeholder partnerships coalesce around a shared problem, seek to involve all the key […]

Purpose: To provide a comprehensive overview of the systems and cybernetics fields, by defining concepts and bringing together key, but currently scattered, references about them. Description: The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics is both a hard copy book (the second edition was published by De Gruyter Saur in 2004) and a searchable online database. […]