Alan Hudson

Learning systems and adaptive practice

Theme

Learning systems and adaptive practice

How people, organisations and systems learn and adapt, from monitoring, evaluation and learning to local systems and adaptive ways of working.

Start here

Local, learning, systems: Simple solutions and complex realitiesWhy donors should support local learning systems, in all their complexity, rather than search for simple and illusory fixes. (May 2025)Tailoring and localizing Systems MELWhy monitoring, evaluation and learning should support local learning systems and pay attention to power, drawing on UNDP's MEL 360 guidance. (Oct 2025)

Strands of work

★ marks pieces in Selected writing.

Learning, evaluation and impact in complexity

Local systems

Awareness, resonance, engagement, reflection: a series (2023)

Sparks of engagement turned into learning questions, about complexity, relationships and collaborative learning. Read it all in one piece, Awareness, resonance, engagement, reflection, or part by part:

  1. ★ Awareness, resonance, engagement, reflection (introduction). Introducing a set of learning questions on complexity, relationships and collaborative learning for social change, each sparked by something I had read or discussed.
  2. Continuums, complexities, contexts. How thinking in terms of continuums, and polarities, can help us act in complex systems.
  3. Patterns, power and systems. Whether new models of governance and organisation can shift the power dynamics that hold systems in place.
  4. Contexts, typologies and learning. How typologies of political economy contexts might support the in-context learning that complex challenges need.
  5. Understanding and evaluating complexity. What data, evidence and models can, and can’t, tell us about complex systems.
  6. Awareness, engagement and emergent learning questions. What writing a series of learning questions on complexity taught me, and three rules of thumb for being in complexity.

Also touching on this theme

Updates, and pieces mainly on other themes.

Topics in this theme

ComplexityMonitoring, evaluation and learningAdaptive learningLearning systemsImpact measurementLocal systems and localisationContextEmergenceSystemic investingGovernanceKnowledge gardeningRelationshipsPowerPolitical economyCorruption

See also: all topics

Exploring this theme in your own work? I’d love to hear what you’re discovering. Let’s connect.