We make available resources from our work with Shared Agendas, published under an open CC BY 4.0. licence and freely available for use and adaptation.
These documents provide the foundational frameworks and tools that underpin how SharedAgendas.org works with place-based collective processes. They offer a shared reference for actors engaging with this work.
Each document can be read on its own. Taken together, they form a coherent set covering governance under complexity, multi-level systemic change, and key dimensions of practice, investment and learning.
Structural conditions and governance requirements for sustaining Shared Agendas
Organising collective action for systemic change under conditions of uncertainty, interdependence and distributed responsibility places demands that expose structural constraints in existing organisational and institutional arrangements. Sustaining Shared Agendas over time brings these constraints into focus.
Experience from place-based collective processes for systemic change shows that difficulties in maintaining coordination, connecting learning to decision-making, and holding shared direction are present from the outset and intensify as initiatives and actors multiply over time.
This document examines how these challenges arise in practice and identifies the key governance tensions and infrastructural requirements for sustaining Shared Agendas over time.
Connecting collaboration, learning and directionality through Shared Agendas
Sustaining collective action under conditions of uncertainty does not depend only on governance structures, portfolios of initiatives or monitoring systems. It also depends on how actors collaborate, remain engaged when tensions persist, and maintain coherence in relation to a shared direction as contexts evolve.
This document focuses on the human capabilities and practices through which collective action is sustained over time in place-based processes for systemic change. It brings attention to recurrent patterns of practice that allow collaboration to become a shared capability, enabling Shared Agendas to function as adaptive processes oriented by a shared vision of the future and evolving through action and learning.
Maintaining direction, contribution and learning over time
This document sets out how theory of change and learning are used within Shared Agenda processes.
It explains how theory of change functions as a working reference to articulate direction, surface assumptions about contribution and relate diverse actions over time, rather than as a fixed plan or performance framework. It also describes how monitoring and learning are organised as collective practices that inform coordination, prioritisation and decision-making as place-based work evolves.
By grounding theory of change and learning in ongoing Shared Agenda processes, the document clarifies how direction and coherence are maintained while collective action adapts under conditions of uncertainty.
Connecting collective action, learning and capital in place-based transitions
This document examines the limits of current systemic investment approaches when they engage with complex, place-based change. It argues that even portfolio-oriented investment remains insufficient if it is not connected to the governance conditions through which collective action is organised, interpreted and adjusted in practice.
By analysing Shared Agendas as territorial governance arrangements, the document reframes how the contribution of investment is understood in contexts where change emerges from the interaction of multiple initiatives over time.
The tools presented in this section support the organisation of collective work in place-based collective processes for systemic change. They are used to develop a shared understanding of systemic conditions, relate initiatives within broader portfolios of action, and connect learning from practice to ongoing coordination and decision-making.
Each tool provides a structured way of working that can be adapted to different contexts and moments within a Shared Agenda. For each tool, a visual template and a PDF explanation are provided.
Helps actors distinguish different types of challenges and align their responses with the nature of the situation.
Supports collective understanding of place-based problematic situations by making different problem framings visible and creating the basis for shared interpretation before analysis and action.
Used to make sense of how practices, rules, investments and coordination currently interact in a place in relation to a specific challenge and a defined direction of change.
Supports collective sense-making about systemic change in relation to a place-based challenge by relating landscape pressures, dominant practices, and emerging alternatives, and how their interaction shapes change over time.
Used to work with persistent tensions shaping Shared Agenda processes, helping actors navigate interdependent orientations over time rather than treating them as problems to be solved.
This tool supports collective work by helping actors distinguish different types of challenges and align their approaches to action with the nature of the situation they are facing. It helps avoid treating complex or uncertain situations as if they were technical or controllable, and provides a shared orientation for how to act, experiment or stabilise.
Choose a tool to explore it in detail
Supports collective understanding of place-based problematic situations by making different problem framings visible and creating the basis for shared interpretation before analysis and action.
Used to make sense of how practices, rules, investments and coordination currently interact in a place in relation to a specific challenge and a defined direction of change.
Supports collective sense-making about systemic change in relation to a place-based challenge by relating landscape pressures, dominant practices, and emerging alternatives, and how their interaction shapes change over time.
Used to work with persistent tensions shaping Shared Agenda processes, helping actors navigate interdependent orientations over time rather than treating them as problems to be solved.
Used to work with persistent tensions shaping Shared Agenda processes, helping actors navigate interdependent orientations over time rather than treating them as problems to be solved.
This tool supports collective work by helping actors distinguish different types of challenges and align their approaches to action with the nature of the situation they are facing. It helps avoid treating complex or uncertain situations as if they were technical or controllable, and provides a shared orientation for how to act, experiment or stabilise.
This tool supports collective understanding of place-based problematic situations. It creates conditions for listening to multiple perspectives, making different problem framings visible, and developing a shared interpretation before moving into analysis and action.
This tool is used to make sense of how a place-based configuration of practices, rules, investments and forms of coordination currently works in relation to a specific place-based challenge and a defined direction of change. It helps actors identify the constraints and opportunities shaping how change can unfold, and to examine what would need to shift across governance, markets, investment, knowledge and culture to move in that direction.
This tool supports sense-making about systemic change in relation to a specific place-based challenge. It helps actors interpret how broader landscape pressures influence local dynamics, how emerging alternatives interact with dominant practices, and how business-as-usual configurations are stabilised, challenged or reconfigured over time.
Used in this way, the multi-level perspective supports collective interpretation of where change is gaining traction, where it remains constrained, and why progress differs across contexts and moments.
This tool is used to work with persistent tensions inherent to Shared Agendas processes. It supports collective learning by helping actors recognise how different, interdependent orientations generate value, how risks emerge when one orientation dominates, and how these tensions can be navigated over time rather than treated as problems to be solved.
This tool structures how portfolios of actions are configured in relation to a shared direction of change. It makes explicit the assumptions that connect selected actions to that direction and distinguishes between outputs and system-level signals. Used within Shared Agenda processes, it provides a structured reference for interpreting contribution and revisiting portfolios.
Helps actors distinguish different types of challenges and align their responses with the nature of the situation.
Supports collective understanding of place-based problematic situations by making different problem framings visible and creating the basis for shared interpretation before analysis and action.
Used to make sense of how practices, rules, investments and coordination currently interact in a place in relation to a specific challenge and a defined direction of change.
Supports collective sense-making about systemic change in relation to a place-based challenge by relating landscape pressures, dominant practices, and emerging alternatives, and how their interaction shapes change over time.
Used to work with persistent tensions shaping Shared Agenda processes, helping actors navigate interdependent orientations over time rather than treating them as problems to be solved.
This tool supports collective work by helping actors distinguish different types of challenges and align their approaches to action with the nature of the situation they are facing. It helps avoid treating complex or uncertain situations as if they were technical or controllable, and provides a shared orientation for how to act, experiment or stabilise.
