Blog12 February 2025
The new year dilemma: resolutions v reality
Recent polling by YouGov suggests that more than a quarter of the UK population made a resolution for a change in 2025 (and let’s be honest, it’s probably linked to money or fitness and good health). A new year often sparks the urge to shake things up, but actually planning change? That’s the tricky part. If you’re anything like me, crafting a change takes time, effort, several coffees, and results in a mild headache. Let me take you back a decade to one of my attempts at change – and why I kept failing.
The false start: thinking that shoes alone would do the trick
It’s 2015. The new year arrives, and I’m in a slump. But wait – salvation! I’ve been gifted a new pair of running shoes for Christmas and decide this is the start of a new me. A me who runs. And ‘running me’ will undoubtedly feel better.
Except… that didn’t happen. My (incorrect) assumption was that simply owning a pair of good running shoes would somehow make me run. It didn’t. Instead, I procrastinated for an entire year.
Rethinking my approach: the Core Theory of Change
Fast forward to 2016, I decide to reassess. My situation and aim remained the same, but I reconsidered the steps to change. To achieve my desired impact of feeling better about myself, I would need to achieve the outcomes of being physically fitter (and looking better, because I’m hideously vain). If I run twice a week as an activity, I’ll eventually achieve an output of running a 5k (and further down the line a 10k). At that point, I’ll be physically fitter, and – obviously – breathtakingly beautiful. So, keeping my outcomes in mind, I dragged myself to the park, and started running.
This was my very simple Core Theory of Change (CToC) for ‘feeling better about myself’– a thought-through description of the change I wished to make, and how it was going to happen. It also served as my personal elevator pitch every time I needed to convince myself to leave the house and start moving. For you, our CToC template is designed to be simple and easy to complete, helping you craft your own elevator pitch for why your outreach intervention or student support programme might actually work.
When motivation wanes: the reality of outcomes
As for my running CToC? For a while, it worked! By the summer, I was (begrudgingly) running 5k. But here’s the thing: outcomes aren’t static. Motivations shift over time, goals get watered down, and situations change. After a few weeks of not running, getting started again felt almost impossible. By 2017, I’m deep in the slump again and feeling like a failure.
We see this with students all the time. A student starts off highly motivated to learn, but their motivation drops. Instead of pushing for that 2:1 when they’re close to achieving it, some relax and think ‘a 2:2 is also pretty good’. Or a student who falls behind by a couple of weeks ends up spiralling, because the effort not only to get back to it, but to catch up, feels overwhelming.
The reality is that a comprehensive theory of change isn’t a neat, linear process. It’s not a one-time exercise that lasts forever. Outcomes exist in the short-term, long-term, and even interact–what you achieve in one area, might enhance or counteract another outcome. Understanding how outcomes are achieved (the change mechanism) is important, and underpinning all of this with literature and research is what gives it real credibility.
The bigger picture: the Enhanced Theory of Change
This is where our Enhanced Theory of Change (EToC) template comes into play – the crucial missing piece that helped me understand why I kept stumbling in my running journey and how to finally break the cycle. A well-developed EToC will give you a clear understanding of how change will occur and is essential for evaluating your work. However, crafting an EToC from scratch is no small task – it involves pulling apart exactly how things work, why they work, diving into research papers and articles, and getting to grips with what a ‘change mechanism’ actually is. Producing a comprehensive theory of change is hard.
TASO recently partnered with acatcalledfrank to make this process easier. We’re developing an online tool that will allow you to create a CToC interactively, and help you expand it into a comprehensive EToC. No more starting with a blank page. Our interactive tool will guide you step by step so you can fully plan and understand the change you wish to make.As for running? I’ve cracked the ‘change mechanism’: I need to enjoy the process. Now, I pick a new album to listen to on every run, and actually look forward to it. I’m no longer running to get fitter (or become ridiculously good-looking), I’m just bopping my way through the Park Run. And at long last, I’m out of the slump.