Each Explorer walked their own path to this club. Maybe there was a project that wouldn’t leave them alone. A relationship with someone doing work that seemed important. A topic that has become a passion.​

It’s rare that someone shows up with a polished theory of change and goes looking for investments to fit it. That’s not usually how we work. Theories of change are constructed in the abstract. And creating theories of systemic change on your own is often more comforting than useful. Things tend to look quite different as soon as the theory comes into contact with that funny thing called ‘reality’! ​

So yes, the Explorers Club builds from passion and relationship. We don’t apologise for that. We first want to weave the relational fabric. This is going to be more important than any individual initiative. The Portfolio of Possibilities isn’t a compromise or a cop-out, but the gathering point where the journey begins.​

Relational fabric as a catalyst​

A system’s capacity to transform doesn’t come from any individual initiative. It comes from the density and quality of the relationships between actors: who trusts whom, who can call whom when something breaks, what shared language has formed around a problem. The relational fabric — built through time invested together, funding things together, failing together — is a form of catalyst. It’s not some set of soft, squishy activities that have to happen before the ‘real’ work begins. It’s a crucial element that’s needed to make big things move.​

Weaving possibilities

So the Portfolio of Possibilities phase weaves the relational fabric. Not just as a collection of projects, but to offer space for a community to emerge. To offer time for people to get to know each other, trust each other’s judgment, and have enough shared reference points to have productive disagreements. This is the raw material from which Strategic Gaps and Synergies are eventually made.​

Oh, and by the way, on the relational part: One of our Explorers invited us to an Organized Conflict meeting. ​

Just to say, we also do this kind of thing! ☺​

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