Ambition Loop – testing viable patterns for system change

The Ambition Loop model proposes that system change is much more likely to occur if three stakeholder groups – users (customers or the public), business (suppliers or service providers) and government (from local to national/regulatory bodies) – form a mutually reinforcing feedback loop. 

When the needs of these three groups are aligned, then they can form a virtuous circle of change that can grow, gather momentum and eventually shift the system around it. 

For designers interested in creating system change, the ambition loop model is valuable test of viability in the conceptual design stage. 

The test is simple: Can I describe a viable ambition loop for my proposed concept?

The model for the test is a stakeholder diagram. To create this model: 

  1. Draw out the stakeholders involved in a system;
  2. Map how they interact.
  3. Draw arrows showing how the desires or actions of each group reinforce the behaviours of the next. 

If we can show using this simple model that our concept passes the ambition loop test, then we have a good signal that the idea has the potential to grow and shift the system we are working in. If our concept does not pass the ambition loop test, then we have a signal that the signal we are working in will resist the change we are seeking to make. 

Once a viable ambition loop can be described, the next stage is to test it as the scale of the ‘minimum viable pattern’. 

Ambition Loops in practice: pioneering doorstep recycling

This is the story of how local grassroots activists were able to begin a process that resulted decades later in legislation – the Household Recycling Act of 2003.

The development of doorstep recycling in the UK wasn’t centrally driven, but was pioneered at local scale, and in particular by local activities from Avon Friends of the Earth, a local-level campaigning organisation. 

The context

In the 1970s, manufacturers were shifting towards using more disposable packaging and ending for instance bottle take-back schemes. Meanwhile, public awareness of environmental issues and the problem of waste to landfill was growing. At the time, the UK government judged doorstep recycling to be too expensive to implement. Avon Friends of the Earth saw the opportunity to prove otherwise. 

Although they didn’t frame it in these terms, we can see retrospectively that they were able to establish an ambition loop between three stakeholder groups that enabled their interests to align.

The local community – increasingly concerned about the impact of waste, with awareness heightened by the rubbish collection strikes at the time. 

Business – local businesses willing to buy waste paper as a feedstock if it could get its hands on a supply. 

The local council – saw that local waste disposal costs were rising. Government also had the challenge of how to deal with high levels of unemployment.

Minimum viable pattern: small-scale collection

In 1976, Avon Friends of the Earth began small-scale waste paper collections that collected household paper waste door to door and sold it to a local business that could use this material stream. 

A key element in this process was creating a viable business for receiving and using the waste paper stream. Environmentally-minded business entrepreneurs collaborated to guarantee a market for recycled paper, helping to get the system moving. 

A third enabling factor was leveraging the government’s existing Community Programme, which provided temporary jobs for the long-term unemployed through community-based projects. Avon Friends of the Earth used this programme to fund workers work in their recycling project. 

These basic elements -public interest, business opportunity and alignment with government objectives – enabled kerbside recycling of paper, and later other materials to be demonstrated. And not only did they show that the initiative was viable, they showed it could make a profit.  

Increasing scale

Over many years, recycling initiatives grew scale and this success of these initiatives gave government evidence that they could confidently legislate for recycling. This activity culminating in the adoption of the 2003 Household Recycling Act, which made doorstep recycling a legal requirement for local authorities.

This example shows that when a simple, reinforcing loop – what we call an ambition loop – is set up, it has the power to change a system. But also, that this change can take years, and even decades.

Applying the Ambition Loop in Design

Step 1 – Identify the stakeholder groups

  • Users: Who are the customers or public involved? What are their desires. What are their pain points? How is the current system failing them?
  • Businesses Which businesses are involved? What are their priorities? What barriers do they face? What shift in operating conditions would make business better?
  • Government and Regulation: Which public bodies are involved? What are their ambitions? What challenges are they seeking to overcome? What in the policy landscape is a blocking change?

Step 2 – Draw a self-reinforcing loop

  • Try connecting up the stakeholder groups in different combinations to find mutual benefit. 
  • Draw an arrow showing how the action of each stakeholder benefits the next stakeholder in the loop.
  • Ask how might the loop become self-reinforcing over time, so that the change can gather momentum?

Step 3 – Find the minimum viable pattern

  • What is the smallest scale that this ambition loop can be demonstrated?
  • Who could you test this minimum viable pattern with?
  • How can you gather evidence that this loop is working?

Why Ambition Loops matter to systems designers. 

The systems that we live with are often very resistant to change. Design that parachutes in a new idea with no reference to the needs of the existing system is risky. There is a great chance that the existing system will reject a new idea unless it can help the agents in the system meet their needs better than they can already. 

The ambition loop model provides a useful test to see how our idea of change might be taken up by the system. If yes, then the idea has the potential to create real change. If not, we may need to rethink our approach.

See also

References:

Schumacher Institute, 2023. Bristol’s Green Roots. [pdf] Available at: https://schumacherinstitute.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Bristols-Green-Roots.pdf [Accessed 10 February 2025].

Future Stewards, 2021. 10 Tools for Systems Change to a Zero Carbon World. [pdf] Available at: https://futurestewards.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/10-tools-for-systems-change-to-a-zero-carbon-world.pdf [Accessed 10 February 2025].

Designing experiments in policy change – lessons from RDL Cohort 4 Session 6 hosted at Chatham House

On February 4th, our current cohort of the Regenerative Design Lab returned to Chatham House London. In this session hosted by our delivery partners, the Chatham House Sustainability Accelerator, our aim was to deepen understanding of system change, policy change and the Ambition Loop model.

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Exploring Regenerative Design with Hawkins Brown

On 30th January 2025, Oliver delivered the keynote for Hawkins Brown’s Regenerative Design Research Week, bringing together ideas on how regenerative design can reshape architectural practice.

As the final session in a week-long series of talks and workshops, this keynote helped tie together discussions on regenerative approaches in architecture. The session explored how organisations can map their activities against larger systems of change and provided practical frameworks for embedding regenerative principles into design practice.

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How to have ideas – workshop for DYSE

On 29th January 2025, we ran our ‘How to Have Ideas’ workshop with DYSE Structural Engineers in Manchester, exploring the creative process in design and how engineers can generate and test ideas effectively.

Building a Creative Toolkit

The session focused on:

  • Understanding a design brief as a flexible starting point for creativity.
  • Using our Kalideascope model to explore where ideas come from.
  • Testing and refining ideas through models and structured evaluation.
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Report Release Announcement: Exploring Policy and Regenerative Design

We are happy to announce the release of our latest report, detailing the findings from the third cohort’s six-month exploration into how policy changes can unlock regenerative design. Our report is now available for download, the findings of which offer a starting point for our next cohort investigating the intersection of policy and regenerative design.

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How to Have Ideas: Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There

Photo of Oliver Broadbent delivering the How to have ideas workshop - standing in front of a slide that says where do ideas come from

Last week, we were at the Institution of Structural Engineers delivering our ‘How to Have Ideas’ workshop to graduate engineers from Ridge Consulting.

Creative thinking is often the gap in the formal education and training of engineers. Yet, in the context of the climate emergency and a rapidly changing economy, creative thinking is crucial for developing designs that meet the needs of people and our wider ecology.

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Buying Bags of Kaleidoscopes: reflecting on how far ideas in teaching can travel

Photograph showing the sign outside the Cambridge university department of engineering

Today, Oliver concluded his series of six workshops as part of the Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment (IDBE) Masters program in Cambridge. In this final session, participants reviewed the material covered over the last five sessions, spread out over two years, and set objectives for their continued professional growth.

The series of six lectures aimed to integrate collaborative design skills into the Masters program, focusing on both creativity and collaboration.

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The Pattern Book – a new collaborative project in regenerative thinking

Earlier this month, we unveiled the Pattern Book project, an innovative workbook designed to guide professionals in the built environment towards regenerative design principles.  The Pattern Book is the next evolution in the development of the Regenerative Design Lab.

New patterns for the future


The Pattern Book aims to be an emergent, collaborative resource, offering a collection of tools, techniques, and resources under Creative Commons.

“We see in patterns, we recognize patterns, we create patterns. To create a world in which construction brings about thriving rather than destruction, we need new patterns for thinking about how we design and build,”

Oliver Broadbent
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