Putting It All Together: Embracing Contingencies and Complexity

Abstract

Building up all of the SCALERS capabilities in the ways described in this book can be a daunting challenge. In this last chapter, I would like to lead you through a step-by-step approach for finalizing a scaling strategy that fits your ecosystem situation and has a reasonable chance for success. The approach involves your answering a set of questions as carefully and honestly as possible, and, depending on the answers, choosing from among a more limited set of pathways to scale. These questions should provide a vehicle for you to obtain a better sense for whether the relationships proposed in Figure 3.3 actually work in your situation. The questions steer you through an assessment of (1) your scaling success to date, (2) your theory of change, (3) your starting resources, and (4) your organizational capabilities. Many of the questions originated from previous empirical research that my colleagues and I have done on the determinants of successful scaling.¹