Every program designed to serve people needs evaluation that is meaningful and engaging. Exceptional evaluation not only proves the value of the program to stakeholders, but also improves the program effect among those it is intended to serve. It can be powerful and formative for any organization–an act of true leadership.

Too often, however, evaluation fails to give us a crisp and clear picture of impact. It is frequently burdensome, perfunctory, or unwieldy–a chore to perform, not an exciting and incisive discovery of the keys to causing human impact. We tend to measure the wrong things in the wrong ways, making our evaluation inert. How can we evaluate better? How do we:

• Design simple, elegant, and meaningful evaluation?
• Develop leadership capacity among staff through evaluation?
• Focus on impact and not just output?
• Communicate results convincingly and with credibility?
• Mobilize stakeholders to engage and staff to make data-driven program decisions?

In this workshop, participants will learn critical approaches to evaluation and how to use two practical tools-the Heart Triangle (a model to illuminate features of human impact) and the Evaluation Windows (a model to design a balanced and meaningful data-gathering approach).

PRESENTER

Steve Patty, Ph.D., Founder & Principal, Dialogues in Action, LLC