The dictionary defines complexity as something that encompasses and involves various distinct elements or aspects with multiple interdependent relationships. So far, so good – Sense-Lab understood the meaning of the word. What we didn't anticipate was the magnitude and power of the complexity involved in working with a global network.
In June 2020, Sense-Lab was invited to build the first Theory of Change, a model demonstrating how strategies connect with outcomes and a positive vision of transformation, for the global network of B Lab. Along the way, another invitation came – to develop a one-year strategic plan for this network for 2021. This meant globally aligning the B movement through a deep dive into its current structure, the history already built, and the collective understanding of the purpose and vision of change for this network. After that, Sense-Lab was invited to support B Lab in the development of strategies for its multiple Global Programs, aligned with the new network strategy, including Policy Change, Impact Management and the B Movement Builders program for Multinational Companies. Sense-Lab also ended up supporting B Lab with the 2022 annual planning, as well as supporting Sistema B Brazil with its own strategic planning, consolidating a long term partnership with the global network.
B Lab is a network of organizations, well-known for certifying B Corporations, present in seven regions – Europe, United States & Canada, Asia, Latin America, Australia & New Zealand, the UK, and East Africa – catalyzing the construction of a movement for economic system change. It is anchored by B Lab Global, an organization that coordinates the network globally.
To understand the complexity Sense-Lab had to navigate during this work, understanding the governance structure of this network is essential.
Each organization in the B Lab Global Network has its own governance, including its board and council. There are seven Global Partners – one for each region, and in some regions, there are National Partners responsible for coordinating the movement in their countries, such as Sistama B in Brazil. Just Sistema B (Latin America regional network) consists of organizations in 19 countries, and Europe in another 15 countries. Additionally, there is a board for B Lab Global.
B Lab Global is governed by its board and the Global Leadership Team, consisting of CEOs and executive directors from the global network, aligning regional and global entities to make decisions impacting the entire network. The challenge in the beginning was to create a joint and coherent strategic alignment in this network of networks with multiple levels of governance, guided by the ambitious vision of changing the global economic system.
Throughout the co-creation process of a Theory of Change and the development of a strategic plan, Sense-Lab interacted with over 45 countries worldwide, conducting around 90 virtual meetings over a semester, facilitated or guided by Sense-Lab, accommodating time zones, different cultures, languages, and specificities of each region.
A Theory of Change for the Global Network
The Theory of Change for B Lab was collaboratively built for an extremely complex system, a network of networks. The puzzle was to align this network of networks based on global principles – trust and care, distributed leadership, consent, and mutual responsibility.
Sense-Lab's mission was to reconcile distributed leadership – based on autonomy –, innovation, and adaptability to regional and local contexts, with global coherence – creating cohesion with alignment and a sense of belonging. It aimed to build a Theory of Change from a shared and coherent vision of the change the global network aspires to do, combined with a strategic plan to achieve that vision.
But how to generate global alignment with dozens of involved organizations and high autonomy? To meet and overcome the challenge, Sense-Lab conducted a dialogical process, involving various actors and generating active participation from different internal network stakeholders, ensuring legitimacy for the work.
Given the complexity of the network composition, the process occurred in six stages, following the methodology used by Sense-Lab, based on the work of Dr. Glenda Eoyang, known as Adaptive Action. The first phase focused on listening and analyzing materials and documents produced by B Lab Global and interviews with its founders and Global and Country Partners, including 50 representatives from the various countries in the seven regions that make up the global network. It was a broad listening process to understand how each network member was operating and what their main priorities were. After this, the gathered information was brought to 35 individuals selected as representatives from all regions and various countries in the network. In total, around 15 listening and construction workshops were conducted by Sense-Lab, with an average of 30 participants, and another 15 decentralized meetings, designed by Sense-Lab but executed by Global and National Partners, for validation and refinement of the Theory of Change. After 22 preliminary versions, Version 1 of the Theory of Change was validated by the boards of the Global Partners, serving as a guide for the first global strategic planning of B Lab.
The Impact of a Theory of Change on the Global Network
The work to build the Theory of Change for a global network, as complex as B Lab's, was challenging but extremely rewarding when looking at the potential for positive impact that can arise from it. With the Theory of Change, a common language was created for the first time to define and align the actions of the network and its constituent organizations. Now, there is clarity about the desired transformation and the results that will lead to that vision globally. Furthermore, there is a better understanding of the scope and reach of the network, with freedom for innovation and adaptability according to local contexts, guided by global strategies. This enables the creation of global programs – as done in the strategic planning process – and provides clarity for regional and local programs. Having a Theory of Change is like setting a target that everyone is aiming for in alignment, with more assertive strategies and actions. This brings a greater possibility of hitting it head-on, which, in other words, would be achieving the desired vision of change, promoting the positive impact that this global network wants to see in the world.
The Global Strategic Planning
For the first time, a joint strategic planning was carried out for the global network of B Lab, a process guided by the recently built Theory of Change. The focus of the planning was to define strategic objectives, design global programs and functional areas, define roles and responsibilities within the network, as well as outcome indicators and actions for the year 2021.
The development of the strategic plan also followed six stages, starting with three weeks of preparation focused on the joint development of the planning framework with the B Lab Global team and the localization exercise (transposition to regional realities) of the Theory of Change. After preparation, the planning process itself followed a structure centered on 2 weeks of global meetings, totaling more than 20 workshops with members from all regions, interspersed with meetings with program teams and teams from regions and countries to unfold the process to local specifics and include the voices of different countries in the construction of a genuinely global plan.
All these interactions led to the definition of six global objectives for 2021, linked to the Theory of Change. These global objectives guide the planning of each region and country, resulting in concrete implications for the organizational structure of B Lab Global, the body that coordinates all this globally, and its budget.
In the second year after the development of the Theory of Change, the B Lab Global Network updated its strategic planning for 2022 with support from Sense-Lab. The structure remained very similar, with the intent to give continuity to the process, with only small adaptations based on the learnings from the first year. The focus of this process was to set annual results and define key action lines to deliver them, prioritizing more and being mindful of the limitations and opportunities, which was an important lesson learned from the first planning. We also made an effort to identify and highlight synergies between the work of different teams.
Strategies for the emerging Global Programs
At the time of the development of the Theory of Change and the first Strategic Planning, the network created Global Programs, based on the strategies defined in the Theory of Change. In order for these new programs to function properly and be able to deliver the high level strategy, there was a need to dive deeper into each one of them and develop specific strategies connected to the overall expected results.
Sense-Lab then worked with the programs’ teams to develop a strategy for Impact Management, which is one of the key strategies for the network, and holds a high potential of income generation. This involved mapping what was already being developed in the regions, consulting experts, consolidating, providing structure and promoting cross learning across the network on the best ways to do Impact Management and how to align it with the strategy, the vision and the business model. Additionally, Sense-Lab supported the Global Policy circle to develop a global strategy for policy change, aligning important concepts, defining expected results and creating mechanisms to balance global and local accountabilities in this work. Still in the programmatic part, Sense-Lab supported the Multinational Companies team to redesign the strategy for the B Movement Builders Program, a track offered by B Lab for MNCs, considering their level of complexity, and mixing individual support with collective work. Since then, Sense-Lab has been involved in the implementation of the B Movement Builders, preparing, hosting and facilitating collective sessions in the workstreams of collective action, learning & exchange and monitoring & steering.
Undoubtedly, this was one of the largest, longest and most complex projects that Sense-Lab had ever conducted, involving many people from different countries and with various interactions. Sense-Lab is proud to be the chosen Brazilian B Corporation to conduct this process. As we like to say, it was no ordinary project!
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