Theory of Change

Purpose of The Theory of Change

The Anti Entropy theory of change outlines why we will follow specific paths and focus on certain impact areas and projects.

The Issue

The foundation and infrastructure of EA operations need to be strengthened.

Fundamentals of The Issue

Shortage of EA Ops Talent Pipeline

  • Roles are difficult to fill or often go unfilled.

  • People are taking on ops roles that they do not enjoy or do not fit their skill sets to accommodate bandwidth and human capital issues.

The Reinvention of Ops Resources

  • Repetitive ask for the same or similar resources on Slack.

  • Difficulty locating resources ops community members know to exist.

  • Resources and materials are occasionally out of date.

Intended Impact

A short-term impact is the assisting target EA organizations with immediate needs.

The primary impact will be a stronger EA Ops Community in the mid and long term.

Short-Term Organization Impact

  • Remove bottlenecks so orgs can move forward

  • Develop stronger orgs for other orgs to lean on.

  • Development of resources to increase bandwidth, which may currently be wasted on research and development.

Long-Term Foundation and Infrastructure Development

  • The number of foundationally sound EA orgs outweighs the bottlenecked or bandwidth constrained org 4:1.

  • An outcome of the impact should be the development of a seasoned EA ops pipeline that has worked an EA ops role at more than one org or worked at an org for more than five years.

Critical Objectives and Interventions for Impact to Happen

  • Current ops team members need to be supported to develop in their roles.

  • Current ops team members need to experience growth with an organization.

  • Current ops team members need to focus on the growth of an organization, not spend time putting out fires, pushing through bottlenecks, or searching for already existing resources and solutions.

  • Development of resources and a way to access the resources to remove bottlenecks and wasted effort.

Indicators of Change

  • The number of EA Ops members who have been at an org for more than five years increases.

  • The number of EA Ops members who have been at more than one EA org increases.

  • Less asking for resources on Slack

  • Mentorships or Fellowships built (not enough people to lead it now)

Assumptions

  • There is a bottleneck in the operations human capital.

  • The need for human capital years of experience currently outweighs the need for training.

    • This assumption will likely flip within a few years.

  • Freeing up the bandwidth of current operations teams outweighs all other issues.

    • New human capital and the development of current human capital can not develop fast enough for the needs of constrained organizations.

    • The need for resources outweighs the need for training in the short term.

  • A meaningful number of EA ops job postings are difficult to fill or often go unfilled.

  • A meaningful number of people are taking on ops roles that they do not enjoy or do not fit their skill sets to accommodate bandwidth and human capital issues.