DRAFT ONLY - not yet published!

Hi, it’s been a while since I last sent out one of my Outcomes and Evaluation E-Newsletters. I’ve been busy on multiple projects (on the small scale - building outcomes models for projects such as a new youth centre in a small rural town;  on the large scale – developing  outcomes models for whole government departments; and on the global front - input into the development of the Asian Development Bank's forward evaluation strategy to 2020).

Between times, I’ve also been developing many videos and other new resources for people working with outcomes and evaluation; and also having input into the new features included in DoView 2.0 (outcomes and evaluation software) which has just been released. And then presenting on all of this – a number of international conference presentations last year; and it was also great to be asked by the American Evaluation Association to present on DoView 2.0 for their first ever Webinar (320 people from around the world tuned into that presentation). So putting out this newsletter last year slipped to second place in my work-life balance equation! More on DoView 2.0.

But this year’s a different matter. I’ll be putting out these newsletters on a more regular basis from now on and providing you with lots of resources and ideas. I get a number of enquiries from people asking if they can use these videos for teaching, training and consulting - remember, you are free to use them in any way you like. More on recent instructional videos I've put up.

What I'm trying to do in my work

Just to set the context for those who’ve only recently signed up for this Newsletter. What I’m trying to do in my work is to reinvent the way we deal with monitoring, evaluation and outcomes in several ways. First, I want to forge much more integration between organizational functions which have sometimes been seen as separate in the past. These are: outcomes specification, strategic planning, performance management, monitoring, evaluation, evidence-based practice and outcomes-focused contracting.

Systematic Outcomes Management / Easy Outcomes

What do these all have in common? Well, they all need to deal with identifying outcomes, measuring outcomes, attributing outcomes (proving what caused them to change), and holding people to account for outcomes.  So I’ve developed an approach, now known as Systematic Outcomes Management / Easy Outcomes, which links all of these organizational functions around a visualized outcomes model (an advanced type of logic model). The idea, which myself and others are now applying all over the place, is that work done in one area of organizational life (e.g. strategic planning) if based on a visualized outcomes model, can then be immediately used in other parts of organizational life (e.g. monitoring, evaluation or outcomes-focused contracting). Feel free, as others are doing, to use aspects of this approach in your work if you like it. More on the Systematic Outcomes Management / Easy Outcomes integrated approach.

Reinventing the way we draw logic models (outcomes models)

Second, I want to reinvent the way those of us who use logic models draw them. For those of you not yet into logic models – they are simply visual representations of all of the steps which are believed necessary to achieve higher level outcomes in any project, organization or other intervention. They go by many names – strategy maps, results maps, theories of change, program theories, intervention logics, logframes, ends-means diagrams – I call them outcomes models.

Up until now, many of us have tried to cram our models onto a single page filled with lines and arrows and strictly divided into inputs, outputs, intermediate outcomes, and final outcomes. What I, and others, are now trying to do in our logic modeling work, is to help project teams, organizational planning departments and stakeholders build large rich logic models which can really capture what it is that they're trying to do and which can be used for a range of purposes (e.g. mapping indicators and evaluation questions onto them; setting out visual program evaluation plans; and for use in outcomes-focused contract negotations between funders and providers). More on the new approach to logic modeling (outcomes modeling).

Good outcomeing!

So, good luck in your outcomeing over the new few weeks. If you have any questions get in touch with me paul @parkerduignan.com.

DoView

Stuff on DoView

Videos and other instructional resources

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Systematic Outcomes Management / Easy Outcomes

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Logic modeling (outcomes modeling)

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