Guidance Note: Practical Introduction to Adaptive Management - Lonsdale and Pruden (2022)

DT Global defines adaptive management as:

"Adaptive management aims to address program and policy environments in complex settings, recognising that clarity may exist in the overall program goal, but the evolving and uncertain context and a lack of evidence on what works make it difficult to plan a pathway to achieving it. Rather than a predetermined ‘program map’, adaptive management argues for a ‘program compass’ – a process that charts an evolving course through a structured, iterative process of monitoring, feedback, learning and decision making. This allows programs to regularly reconsider priorities, make course corrections and revise approaches, activities and budget allocations, in response to learning and changes in the world around them."

The guidance note proposes four core characteristics of adaptive management:

1. Flexibility is our capacity to adjust (for example strategies, plans and resources) in response to contextual change and learning plus the absence of constraints that force programs to stick to predetermined plans. Generally this approach requires support from our client and delegated authority to manage adaptively.
2. Responsiveness is about engaging deeply with context consistently throughout the program, proposing and testing what we think could work and ensuring that our plans reflect and are shaped by our understanding of local politics and power.
3. Purposive learning is about review and reflection, including testing and updating the program rationale and assumptions, which leads to strategy and programming decisions and adjustments as our understanding and influencing position evolves.
4. Culture is about having a team that feels confident and empowered to work with these approaches, which includes having supportive ways of working in place with the client and trust across key relationships.

This note aims to support DT Global staff and partners to: 

1. understand DT Global’s adaptive management framework;
2. assess if and what level of adaptive management is required for a programme;
3. understand the difference between adaptive management and good programme management; and
4. implement initial steps to apply adaptive management principles and practice.