A FRAMEWORK FOR SUCCESS

We have long used a simple framework, developed collaboratively with our founding funders and with guidance from Jewlya Lynn of PolicySolve, to organize N Square’s goals for impact.

The left side of the framework focuses on outcomes— that is, the specific and often measurable nearterm effects of our work in/on a particular target population. We have focused on three basic outcomes: (1) to create and sustain a network that engages nuclear professionals and experts in other disciplines and fields, (2) to build the capacity of individuals within the network to innovate and to collaborate (and ideally to do both together) by introducing them to new tools and approaches to problem-solving around nuclear challenges, and (3) to see (and encourage) a new ecosystem of support begin to rise up around this way of working. That support includes tools and technologies that foster collaboration and innovation as well as funders and organizations other than N Square taking on part of the work of championing the network and the innovations emerging from it.

The right side of the framework focuses on impact— that is, the longer-term and even systemic effects of the outcomes we just described. Establishing and assessing impact requires stepping back from the closer-in work of achieving outcomes to consider the broader effects that work might stimulate. From the outset, we have been focused on three interconnected areas of impact. First, we wanted to see innovations emerging from the network that reflect a new way of looking at and working on entrenched needs and problems in the field, and to see some of these innovations begin to achieve reach and scale. We also wanted to see these innovations—both projects coming out of the network and new shared processes for approaching problems and finding solutions— begin to have an impact on nuclear threat reduction and the field’s ability to achieve it. Third, we hoped that all of this work would add up to the field having reliable capacity to innovate, with nuclear professionals feeling more supported and encouraged to use collaborative methods and to prioritize cross-sector, transdisciplinary problem-solving.

Of course, not all N Square activities focus on just one outcome or impact area; most act on several or even all of them at once. Also, it’s important to be clear that N Square has never presumed that we had the expertise necessary to have a directly attributable impact on nuclear proliferation or disarmament challenges. Instead, we’ve taken a systems view: If we want different nuclear outcomes, we need to rewire the system that produces those outcomes, which, by extension, means rethinking how the nuclear field operates.

In this report, we share how we and others think we have delivered on these goals and how that learning will inform what we do next.