4th Serving: What is ServCollab’s Theory of Change?

By Ray Fisk, Founder and President of ServCollab

Now that I have shared the three core concepts of serving, collaboration, and wisdom as fundamental components of human systems (https://www.servcollab.org/servings), this fourth serving connects each concept to ServCollab’s Theory of Change.

First, I need to emphasize that ServCollab’s efforts to serve humanity require us to study and learn from universal human behaviors. Serving is based on the universal behavior of making offerings to other humans. Collaboration emerges from our universal interaction behaviors when tasks require full human agency. And our universal learning behaviors are how our species moves from ignorance to knowledge and even to wisdom.

ServCollab’s Theory of Change

Nonprofit organizations are often asked to explain their Theory of Change, which explains how and why the nonprofit’s policies or programs will lead to intended outcomes. Because ServCollab studies universal human behaviors, our Theory of Change follows our search for universality.

Our graphic shows that our core logic is based on three essential human flows: 1. Service enables collaboration; 2. Collaboration enables wisdom; and 3. Wisdom enables service.

To provide additional details, the transition in our Theory of Change from each core concept to the next is based on one of the three universal Wisdom Principles for Serving Humanity that I introduced in the first three servings: Serving Each Other, which is the transition phase that enables collaboration; Serving the Truth, which is the transition phase that enables wisdom; and Serving the Future, which is the transition phase that enables new services. Hence, our Theory of Change is regenerative.

Practicing our Theory of Change

ServCollab is working hard to put our Theory of Change into practice. Our servings to the service research community have included a large number of articles and conference presentations that have encouraged more collaboration in the service research community. This led us to create our two ServCollab Wisdom Communities. The first community is for PhD students who want to pursue service research that serves humanity. The second community is for early career faculty who are pursuing service research for humanity. With the collaborative help of the ServCollab Wisdom Communities, we are launching the ServCollab Wisdom Quest at the SERVSIG Research Conference in June 2026.

You can find more details about our activities in our ServCollab Catalyst Newsletter: https://www.servcollab.org/newsletter

Lagniappe: A Model for Regenerating Human Progress

One of my favorite Creole words from my years living in New Orleans is lagniappe. It means something given as a bonus or an extra gift. New Orleans restaurants are known to serve an extra food item as lagniappe. To me, lagniappe is a word for a generous serving.

In that spirit of generously serving something extra, I am delighted to emphasize that because ServCollab seeks to serve humanity, our theory of change also applies to all of humanity.

We believe humanity can create a regenerative wisdom spiral by practicing the three universal wisdom principles we synthesized.

Becoming Homo Sapiens

Centuries ago, the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus classified the human species with the Latin name “homo sapiens,” meaning “wise man.” Unfortunately, we are not yet a wise species.

Humanity is a becoming species. We are born into profound ignorance and dependence. Fortunately, our species has the innate capacity to learn, collaborate, and transcend our ignorance.

Humanity shares information to survive, shares knowledge to thrive, and shares wisdom to become.

ServCollab’s mission is to serve humanity through research collaborations that catalyze relieving suffering, improving well-being, and enabling well-becoming.” These are three different wisdom outcomes that can help achieve human progress. From the perspective of human progress, suffering is the lagging edge of progress, well-being is the center of progress, and well-becoming is the leading edge of progress.

Humanity can become a wise species if we serve each other, serve the truth, and serve the future!

If you like this offering, please serve it to others who might like it.

Other ServCollab Servings can be found here: https://www.servcollab.org/servings