• Recognize that your organization is part of an environmental landscape and understanding where you fit within that and your unique contribution can be helpful in narrowing in on the outcomes you hope to accomplish.
• Outcomes don’t happen by magic at the programmatic or organizational level. They occur because one has thought through a pathway of activities/strategies, relationships, interactions and changes that are most likely to lead to the desired end.

The next critical practice is to “differentiating what you want to know, can know and need to know.” Once you get to this point, you have adopted the idea that information is important and it’s not all what you can see and feel but also what you can demonstrate. This is all about knowing how to ask the right questions at the right time .

As you continue on this journey, distinguish between the information needed to determine if your efforts are 1) progressing as intended, and 2) having the impact desired.

Getting clear on what information (guided by the most relevant questions) is most salient to your work and intention and being comfortable with what you can know (based on available data, time frame, resources, appropriateness, etc.) is an evolutionary process. Like sport you wish to master, it takes time and
training for the muscles to respond and behave in the way you wish. Part of that journey is knowing what equipment best suit your style and preference and yields the desired results as well as determining a training schedule you can stick to (more on that in our final post).

Some tips to pave the way include:

• Understand where your organization or efforts sits in terms of its overall development
• Know the difference between process and outcome questions and at what stage in your development it makes the most sense to ask what
• Look to your colleagues who engage in similar work or efforts and ask if they might share their thinking, internal working documents including logic models, evaluation frameworks and measurement tools.

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• Getting clear about why you do what you do and the “to what end” is a new muscle in the non-profit sector which needs exercise.
• Once an organization gets clear, it can be a transformative event that opens up possibilities, focuses efforts and strengthens evaluation efforts

The next critical practice is to “leverage and link your efforts.” Important in both small and large organizations. For large organizations, because it is easy for the pieces and programs to get away from the core purpose and intended impact of your org. For small organizations because there is very little cushion and thus everything you do must matter. This includes not just thinking about efforts internal to your organization but also how you relate to others whose work supports and compliments your own.

In our own practice, we love this part of the process which often is iterative with Practice 2 (Differentiate What you Do with The Difference You Make). If we are doing program /initiative level work, it starts as simply with a group of staff people each armed with a set of color coded large post-its (one color each for outcomes and activities) and a blank wall. Participants are given the opportunity to brainstorm outcomes and activities which lead to them. We then move the pieces around the wall, the dialogue begins and the opportunity for clarity and alignment happen through exploration of the following questions: What leads to what? What is missing? Is that the right outcome? What can we really accomplish? What else do we need to do to reach the outcome? Can we do it? Should someone else? How do we connect?

For more complex endeavors, conceptual models such as network analysis and system mapping can be helpful. And logic models and theories of change are additional tools to assist you in making connections and getting clarity on how the pieces work in service of each other and where your organization fits in the larger environmental context.

None of our work happens in a vacuum, and for us to have true impact as well as understand the degree of impact we CAN have, it’s important to contextualize, be explicit about intention, and develop and implement programs/projects/efforts which have the greatest likihood of success. All of which move you along the path to being evaluative.

What tools have been most helpful to you? What have been the results of leveraging and linking your efforts in your organization?

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“Gone are the days when corporate donors wrote checks for the ‘nice’ programs or the ‘cute’ girls,” according to the CEO and chief fundraiser for Girls Inc. of the Capital Region.Donors ask for financials and business plans, and “they want to know how you’re changing the communities in which you exist.“ Rick Cohen, NonProfit Quarterly. August 27, 2010; Source: The Business Review |

This is the 3^rd in a series of posts were we explore one of 5 Evaluative Practices, that if adopted put you on the path to being evaluative. The last post highlighted how important it is to Know Thyself as one embarks on this journey. Core to that post are the following:

• Being clear about the degree to which you are comfortable with and able to test your assumptions about why you do the work and the change you seek as a result of your efforts
• Clarity on intent and what can be accomplished opens you up to what you need to do to make that happened and not want you hope will happen.

The next critical practice is to “not confuse what you do with the difference you make.”  There isn’t a single organization with which we have worked regardless of size, type or focus that cannot in a blink of the eye provide a list of all the things they do.  They can talk about the activities, the work they do, who they serve/support/target…etc.  It’s often amazing the depth and breadth of knowledge they have about the work. And yet, often when asked, “Why? What difference does it make? Or even more directly, what is the impact that is intended?”  There is silence. And when that question is posed again, the response is often a restatement of the activities/strategies.

Why does it matter? And why is it so hard to do this?

Well it matters if you want to evaluate your efforts.  Evaluation is the process of determining the merit, worth and value of things. To successfully design an evaluation framework and implement an evaluation plan, it is important that the intention of said work (expressed through outcomes and objectives) is clear so one can determine progress towards a stated aim.

And the response to why it is so hard is a complex one.  It could be that mission and vision statements which are often used as the default guiding star for non profits are so broad, they don’t support saying no and focusing efforts towards a single end point. Or it could be that being clear about outcomes/objectives is a new muscle that has only been in practice for 5—7 years (10 at the most).

Regardless of the why, when it does happen, it is a transformative moment. Following are a few examples:

• Bay Area arts organization – After engaging in strategic framework process (theory of change + decision screen) –they re-framed themselves as being an agent of social change that uses art as a tool for dialogue, healing and identifying solutions.
• Oakland youth organization – No longer focused on describing the issue, they are now better able to state (and work towards) a specific outcome within that environmental context. They can also stick to an evaluation plan.
• South Bay community center – By being more explicit about the why and the to what end (outcomes), they are now less likely to stray in to the land of “good work” but stay focused on the “right work”.
• Foundation – By developing a theory of change for its own initiatives, it seeks partner organizations that are not only aligned through values but whose work supports progress towards foundation outcomes.  It also made the reporting and evaluation efforts easier and more meaningful.

Share your stories about your efforts to get clear.

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As we reflect on our numerous and varied clients, one practice, if present, makes our work as consultants much easier and ultimately yields a much more rewarding, satisfying and successful engagement. This is particularly true when we are engaged in evaluation related work. Know Thyself.

This can be the hardest piece of becoming evaluative. It requires a sense of honesty and a reality check that is often counter to the desire to fix/save/heal that which drives people to the work. This holds true for the individual leader as well as the organization itself. The reality is… work in the social and philanthropic sector is very personal AND it has limitations as well as opportunities. Being clear about the degree to which you are comfortable with and able to test your assumptions about why you do the work and the change you seek as a result of your efforts is a precondition to officially embracing the evaluative journey. It opens you to what is possible and a sense of clarity about what can be accomplished not want you hope will happen.

To see if you (or your organization) are ready, try on these questions and see where they take you and equally important how this initial journey makes you feel:

• What values do you bring to this work? Are they transparent to others? Are they shared by the organization as a whole?
• How are your values shaping the way you define the issue(s) your organization seeks to address? The outcomes you seek? The strategies undertaken? Again, are they shared by the majority of the organization and are you willing to make them transparent?
•  Are you more committed to what you do then the impact your efforts are having?
• As a leader (positional), are you willing to take the organization where you think it needs to go to truly be impactful regardless of the implications? Do you have enough support (Board (at least one) and staff) to join you on this journey?

Your comfort in exploring these questions as well as your answers, will provide a keen assessment of whether you are ready or rather what you might need to do to get ready to begin transitioning your organization to evaluative. It will also help you identify the type of consultant partner that may assist on this journey or at least part of it.

And if there are other questions that you think help unpack this practice, please share those as well as your experience in answering these questions.

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That is not to say that we do not value and support evaluation. We do. But it has been our experience that the art and science of being evaluative creates and supports a culture of systematic and purposeful inquiry, reflection and informed decision-making that strengthens alignment in support of impact. We see evaluation as part of being evaluative. Both of which should clearly support strategy and inform the business model.

What do we mean by Evaluative?  An organization that reaches beyond performance measurement and monitoring to embrace the relentless pursuit of quality and value by thinking and acting evaluatively to improve organizational performance. (W Martz, University Michigan)

In reflecting on our work and that of our clients, five practices surface as instrumental to moving towards an evaluative mindset. Note, that these are not about “capacity building” led by a consultant but really speak to an organizations’ willingness and readiness to ask itself some hard questions about what is getting in the way and what is working in service of “to what end.”

1.  Know Thyself
2. Leverage and Link Your Efforts
3. Don’t Confuse What You Do with the Difference You Make
4. Differentiate What You Want, Need to and Can Know
5. Be Systematic Not Episodic

Over the next few weeks we will share more about each practice and some examples from our clients about their journey and the changes resulting from adopting these practices.

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We have the power to create a world in which the journey towards social equity becomes the central and unifying theme across social and philanthropic sectors, and in which civil society demands social accountability of its elected officials and policy makers. In this new world, strategy, intention, reflection and adaptive decision-making become the norm. And in 2012 we have an extra 24 hours to dedicate our efforts to make this story a reality.

Already three weeks in to the year, we are sensing a change in the environment. Our discussions with consultant colleagues and client partners (past and potential) are increasingly exploring the synergies between evaluative thinking, strategy and planning as critical practices which if adopted by and integrated in to the culture of organizations, alliances, collaborations and networks can better align and leverage their efforts towards shared outcomes. It’s an exciting time that will bring with it both success and failure but if you don’t push the envelope and try new things, what will ever change?

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