ABSTRACT
Many people equate strategy with planning, which is a mistake in any context, and a particularly pernicious mistake in the context of systems change. A working strategy establishes hypotheses concrete enough to test about how to drive change, paths to gain necessary resources, and frameworks for achieving cohesion across disparate actors. In guiding systems change work, an era should never be defined simply in terms of completion of a set of activities, but rather in terms of developments in the world and tangible development of capabilities that enable greater change. Achieving systems change, beyond simply notching early wins with a few corporate champions, would require making the journey to the other side of the chasm. A beacon alone is insufficient to navigate by when the journey is long and complex, as is the case in seeking to change a system.
