Current e-Journal
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March 24, 2026
Where does Catalytic Thinking NOT work?
In this week’s Systems Change Newsletter…
- Invitations and Announcements
- Catalytic Thinking Exercise: Where does Catalytic Thinking NOT work?
- Resources to Further Your Practice
Invitations & Announcements:
Consultants: Be the one clients choose!
How can you tell what clients are really ready for? How can you ensure your marketing speaks directly to the groups you want to work with? The next webinar in our just-for-consultants series unlocks the answers to those questions, helping you decipher what clients are feeling underneath their words. If you want to be a more effective consultant and change agent, find out how…
In the U.S.
Some pretty draconian changes are coming to the federal grant process. Those changes include the requirement that grantees sign an oath to adhere to the president’s executive order on DEI or face criminal charges. Yes, you read that right. Find out what you can do to fight this at this link…
Catalytic Thinking Exercise:
Where does Catalytic Thinking NOT work?
During a webinar last week, one of the participants asked this question:
I work a lot with national and/or policy advocacy orgs. What types of organizations do these tools not work for? Or are there tweaks that need to be made for certain groups?
We are asked this question often. It is frequently phrased as, “I didn’t think it would be applicable for this situation.” And so we thought we would address the question here, in this week’s newsletter.
First, it is important to understand that Catalytic Thinking is not a toolkit; it is just a series of questions, to replace the questions that social change efforts are already asking and answering.
This is perhaps the most important point about Catalytic Thinking - the acknowledgement that our work is already the answer to questions. Catalytic Thinking simply encourages us to ask more effective questions for creating a more humane world.
For example, most social change work revolves around the question, “What problem are you addressing?” That question carries with it all sorts of assumptions about what we will aim to accomplish.
- It leads to the assumption that the group’s primary goal is to react to a problem (vs. creating a joyful world).
- It creates the assumption that the only important efforts are those that are reacting to problems (which is why arts and education programs so often have to pathologize their otherwise aspirational work, talking about “art therapy” or “the failures of our education system”).
When we realize that all our work is already answering questions, we can be explicit about just what kinds of questions we want that work to answer.
- Do you want to always be answering deficit-based, problem-focused questions?
- Or do you want to answer questions that lead to your community’s potential?
Will you ask questions that lead people to agency over their own lives?
Catalytic Thinking asks:
Who will be affected? What would it take for them to participate in the decision and/or lead the direction we take?
Or will you ask questions that lead to a small group of insiders making decisions about hundreds, if not thousands or millions of people. (For example, “Shouldn’t the board just make this decision on their own? Or maybe include some of the leadership team?”)
Will you ask questions that aim at our potential to create a more humane, healthy, joyful world?
Catalytic Thinking asks:
What is the ultimate result we want our efforts to create? What would good look like for all those people who will be affected?
Or will you ask questions that react to what is wrong, keeping social change always playing defense. (For example, “What is the problem and how will we address it?”)
Will you ask questions that acknowledge the strengths we all have to build upon?
Catalytic Thinking asks:
What resources already exist that we can build upon, in order to accomplish our goals?
Or will you ask questions that reinforce perceptions about scarcity. (For example, “Where is the money going to come from?”)
Coming back to the question from our planning webinar, regardless of the type of work you do or the size of the group you are working with, you are always asking and answering questions. The answers to those questions will determine what the group will accomplish.
And so it doesn’t matter whether the group is a small food pantry or a national policy advocacy group. The questions of Catalytic Thinking will be the same.
- Who gets to decide what is important to focus on?
- Will the group aim solely at reacting to a problem, or will they aim to create a joyful, humane community, one step of which might be to address problems?
- Will they focus on the resources they don’t have, or the power they do have?
As Catalytic Thinking practitioners around the world have shared, those questions apply to organizations of all kinds, and to our individual lives as well. As a family, as a coworker, as a neighbor – we can choose the questions we will ask of ourselves and others.
The answer is therefore that because these are simply questions, we can ask those questions in any setting, with any group or individual. And that when we do, we can shift our understanding of our power to create what is possible, in our own lives and in the world.
That is the power of Catalytic Thinking. Because anyone, anywhere, in any circumstance, can choose to ask a different question.
Resources to Further Your Practice:
- WATCH: This 2 minute video will inspire you to ask a different question, wherever you are. Get inspired here…
- READ: What if the advice to streamline your planning in these tough times is the OPPOSITE of what is needed? And what if now is the time to aim at creating what is possible alongside your community members – helping everyone step into their power? Find out why everyone is talking about this shift. Read it here…
- LISTEN: Our latest podcast focuses on what happens when we improve conditions for women in the workplace and in community. Join Renee Wittemyer, VP for strategy at Melinda French Gates’s Pivotal Ventures, for an episode filled with aha’s. Listen here…
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