Case Study
Building an organizational learning system.
We partnered with an international NGO to develop a learning agenda and the broader systems that connect evidence to strategic decision-making across their country programs.
The Work
The organization had accumulated years of evidence, research, and operational experience across multiple country programs. The team came to us looking for support in identifying what to focus their learning on next, and how that learning could connect more directly to the strategic and investment decisions leadership was preparing to make.
The engagement moved through three phases. We facilitated a structured listening and learning tour across country programs, technical teams, and senior leadership to surface the questions worth pursuing. We then mapped each candidate question against what the organization already knew, what was contested, and what remained unanswered. The surviving questions moved through a shared prioritization framework, scored independently by senior staff and synthesized for collective discussion.
The organization left the engagement with a final agenda of four priority learning questions, each tied to a real decision on the horizon, and a Living Library that brings together what is known and what is being generated. The team can now run the process themselves, ready to support the next round of strategic decisions.
Artifacts
Three frameworks built during the engagement.
The Prioritization Lens
A framework for evaluating learning questions across strategic relevance, evidence value, decision proximity, and organizational fit.
The Evidence-to-Decision Flow
How a candidate question moves through the process, from framing to decision linkage.
The Evidence-to-Decision Flow
A view of how a candidate question moves through the process, from initial framing through evidence mapping and prioritization, into either the agenda or routine monitoring.
The Learning Agenda Architecture
The finished agenda as a working document for leadership.
The Learning Agenda Architecture
A finished learning agenda as a working document, structured to drive a year of investment decisions.
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