From Biology to Changemaking: Embracing the Tree of Alignment in Transformative Work

By Nora F. Murphy Johnson, PhD

In the quest for transformative change, whether in organizations, communities, or individual lives, understanding the dynamics and drivers of change is critical. The “Tree of Alignment,” a metaphorical concept, provides a comprehensive framework for fostering environments that are conducive to meaningful and lasting change.

Most of you know me as an evaluator, researcher, or changemaker. But my first love was biology. I couldn’t get enough of my classes on plant biology and comparative physiology. I dabbled in marine biology and tropical ecology, doing site work in Tobago, Costa Rica, Belize, and the US Virgin Islands. I later spent a semester studying the desert ecology of the Southwestern United States. I taught high school biology for a few years and ran environmental service programs for the Student Conservation Association. I didn’t make the jump to research and evaluation until I was in my late 20s, and it was years after that before I found my place as a changemaker through evaluation.

Everything I learned in biology is relevant to my work as an evaluator-changemaker: feedback loops, interdependencies, moving across scales of time, space, and size, and diversity as a necessary ingredient for…