It’s true. I’m an evaluator by trade and profession and I could care less about it.
I don’t necessarily love it all the time. It doesn’t always thrill me. And it certainly isn’t what gets me out of bed each morning.
Sometimes there are aspects of evaluation that really annoy me. (Doesn’t evaluation kind of annoy you too?!?) Measurement. Ugh. Judgement & Assessments. *Wince* Data analysis. Meh. Logic Models. *Yawn* Root Cause Analysis. It just sounds painful!
I mean, if this is as far as we get when we talk about evaluation, then you might as well ball & chain me. What a downer… It all turns into drudgery.
So why, you may ask, have I built a career and a business out of something I don’t care about?
Well, even though evaluation is WHAT I do, it isn’t WHY I do the work I do.
THIS is what I love to do:
- I love to create spaces for people and organizations so that they can have a greater understanding of themselves and their work.
- I love the process of unearthing things that are under the surface.
- I love GROWTH. Not necessary WIDE growth, but DEEP growth.
- I love arriving at moments of insight and clarity. They are always so invigorating.
- I love talking about and being centered on purpose.
- I love amplifying voices that wouldn’t otherwise get heard.
- I love innovative ways of working that up-end traditional hierarchies of power.
- I love supporting good work, noble efforts, and most of all, cultivating justice for all.
So what does evaluation have to do with this?
I see evaluation as a road. A tool. A means to an end.
Where does this road of evaluation take us? Where can it lead you? What is the destination?
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I believe that evaluation carries us to a place of greater clarity. Better understanding. Deeper sense of purpose. And higher alignment.
It welcomes us to a place of transformation. It invites us to a place of courage.
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Organizations do NOT struggle and flounder because they lack evaluation.
They struggle and flounder and can be ineffective because they lack clarity, insight, self knowledge, alignment, and a sense of purpose. Without these foundational pieces in place, we all stumble along.
But what happens when an organization does have clarity, understanding, and alignment with purpose? It becomes more effective. The work becomes impactful. THIS is what I love to see.
And evaluation is just a tool that can help in that journey.
Being an evaluation consultant brings me a LOT of joy. It’s a privilege and honor to serve in this way. And I love the organizations I work with and the work we get to do together.
But do I really care if you evaluate? Am I impressed by your pre & posts tests? All of your baseline data? Your sampling procedures? Your numerous surveys? Your lofty impact statements? Your color coded dash boards? Well, not really. Not if the road stops here and this work has no further meaning for you.
PROPONENTS wants you to succeed in creating positive social change. And through evaluation, you gain access access to powerful information that you can use to make a greater impact. At the end of the day, this is what I want for you. To see yourselves as you really are. To gain clarity and courage as you forge the path forward. To function from a deep sense of purpose. To serve your community well.
And if evaluation can assist you towards those ends, then fabulous! Let’s carry on.
Insight to Ignite:
- Why do you do the work you do?
- Do you evaluate JUST to evaluate? Do you sometimes wonder, “Why am I doing this?”
- Do you have a sense of WHY your organization engages with evaluation?
- Does evaluation serve a deeper purpose for you or for your organization? Does it spur you on to greater clarity, insight, and effectiveness? Or does it simply assist you in reporting out to your funders?
- How can you refocus and reframe the work of evaluation so that it serves YOU better?
Matteah Spencer Reppart is the founder and visionary leader of PROPONENTS LLC, an independent consulting firm providing evaluation services for programs and organizations. With a passion for individual, organizational, and community growth & progress, Matteah is an advocate for reflective practices in our personal and professional spaces and utilizes evaluation tools towards those ends. As we gain insight into where we are in order to move forward, Matteah maintains a commitment to fully and authentically showing up in her work and encourages her clients to do the same.
You are so brave to speak the unspeakable. Speaking Truth to Power?? You know I’m tapped into the listservs in the eval community, and I see a huge gender division. Women can (and do) embrace what you wrote about, while men (largely) find this kind of thinking repulsive. One of them actually said that “TO LEARN” is the WORST reason to evaluate (this was a response to my post about evaluation being done for the purpose of learning). They are rigidly stuck in their scientific thinking without being conscious that it promotes white male supremacy and silences other voices – it eradicates the possibility that there are other ways of knowing (and there are.) And the pushback against what you wrote is huge, and it can, does, and will come from men and it could be quite ugly. Be prepared.
Today, I’m mining school district test score data. Talk about reductionism – reducing kids to a score. Nothing can be more dehumanizing. But it’s paying my bills today.
I think the joy of being an evaluator comes from the many challenges we face, the fact that no 2 clients or evaluations are the same, and that if we are lucky, in the midst of all that data crunching, we bring something to light that really makes a difference in people’s lives.
Tomorrow I talk with a client about designing a study of increased agency among immigrants who participate in an arts program….now that’s sexy meaningful stuff…and it puts my data mining hours into perspective.
Martha – I agree this work is always new and challenging and when done well, deeply contributes towards the social good. I love it.
But let the push back come as it may. “Bring it” because this is what I stand on: The quality of my services & deliverables, my competency, understanding, and knowledge in the field, the benefit and value I provide to my clients, and my reputation and body of work in the community can all speak for itself. I do wonder if these men you speak of can say the same?
Keep on keeping on sister!
Hopefully your clients are on your list serve. I’m quite sure being evaluated is equally as “painful” and they may feel as though the evaluator is just doing her job. Reading this will not only provide them insight into the evaluator’s position, but may also assuage the feeling of being overwhelmed during the process.
Sn: My favorite sentence: “It invites us to a place of courage.” It absolutely does!