# The Systemic Investing Process

This practice guide is structured along a procedural logic. It lays out all the steps of the systemic investing process for designing, developing and implementing a systemic investment program from scratch. 

This process hypothesis represents the current status of our thinking and is based on learning from our own as well as our partners' work. As the field continues to expand and more practitioners are engaging with systemic investing these learnings will amplify and our hypothesis on how the systemic investing process looks like will naturally change.

## The nature of the process

A key feature of systemic investing is iteration. Systems are dynamic and ever-changing by nature, so the practice of allocating financial capital with the intention to change systems needs to respond to this. This is why the systemic investing process is not a linear step-by-step approach but a highly iterative endeavor: the different activities build on and amplify each other, many steps need to be taken in parallel, and as new insights emerge they may require systemic investor to constantly adapt and revisit previous steps. So, when visually mapping out the systemic investing process, the result is not a straightforward, linear process diagram, but two interdependent cycles.

<figure><img src="/files/TFHrSaKlMV2DPp5248sv" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

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### Program Design & Development

Cycle 1 is about designing and developing a systemic investment program, i.e. getting such an effort off the ground. It focuses on how investors and other key actors orient within a system, build understanding, develop strategy, design coherent architectures, and prepare programs for activation. It’s where systemic investing becomes tangible — combining systems thinking, investment design, and collaboration in practice.&#x20;

This is where most of our work to date has taken place. Here, systemic investing has evolved from theory into practice — translating the hallmarks of systemic investing into real-world approaches and tools for designing systemic investment programs.
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### Program Implementation

Cycle 2, with its phases still to be defined in detail, will explore how systemic investment programs operate once established — how capital is deployed, stewarded, and adapted over the long term and in response to system feedback. This area is still emerging, with frameworks grounded in: TCI's own prototyping work; engagement with and profiling of pioneering actors in the field (e.g., through case studies); and, learning from adjacent fields and initiatives.
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Each cycle entails different phases and each phase comprises a variety of activities. The practice guide is structured accordingly and devotes separate chapters and sub-chapters to each phase and activity.&#x20;

## Navigating through the guide

To make it easier to navigate the guide, each chapter is structured in the same way:

1. A brief **introduction** to a topic, providing context and specifying the relevance of the topic,
2. **Guidance and suggestions** to enable readers to perform the work in their own context,
3. A list of **practical tips**, including best practices and mistakes to avoid, and
4. A list of **reading materials** with more detail for those who want to dive deeper.

Broadly speaking, the content captured in different chapters is presented in sequential order. Often, the outputs generated in one chapter will be used as inputs in subsequent chapters. We recommend you read chapters in sequential order, at least the first time. That’s because not all chapters contain sufficient information to be useful on their own. However, if you are familiar with systemic investing, you can skip ahead to those chapters that are of greatest interest to you.


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