2022 Evaluation Planning Tips
Evaluation planning is one of the tools that helps you not only stay on top of the details but helps to ensure that you maintain ownership over the evaluation process and are developing evaluation systems in your organization that truly give you what you need, cut down on unnecessary busy work, and help you gather the information that will help you do your best work.
As we wrap up the year and head into 2022 (yes already), many of us are already taking a look back on the year and reflecting, taking inventory, and starting to plan forward. Reflecting on the questions below will help you take stock of your evaluation activities over the past year and give you an idea of where to focus your efforts moving forward.
Before you get overwhelmed by the questions, don’t worry. You could certainly dedicate some time to sit down and go through these questions and develop a well-organized, thorough overview and plan (where my Virgos at?). But you could also schedule 20 min on your calendar and jot down what you remember and what you can think of. I often find that the first things that come to mind are the most powerful and focusing your attention here can have a huge impact. Hot tip: if you draw a blank or have to look up the answers to any of these questions, that’s good information in itself!
Use these questions as a guide to get you thinking about evaluation in a holistic way so that you can start to build an evaluation culture in your organization that gives you the information you need, reduces stress and busy work, and allows you to take ownership over the transformative power of information.
First, take inventory:
What were your evaluation activities?
How do your activities connect to funding and administrative requirements?
Take a look at your evaluation budget. What did you plan for, how much did you ultimately spend, and where did the money go?
Who worked on the evaluation (include staff, consultants, and even program participants)?
Now the fun part! Journal, reflect, or talk about the following questions:
What evaluation activities helped you learn the most?
Where did you say, “wow, that’s good to know!” or gain essential information to help you make decisions?
What evaluation activities didn’t give you any new information?
It can be great to get affirming survey responses that showcase how much participants liked your program, but did you get information that helped you understand why and how or help you make programming decisions?
What evaluation activities felt like busy work?
Also think about what activities didn’t give you any new information, what was stressful, and what just didn’t seem like the right fit.
Where did your money go?
Evaluation staff or consultants, staff time, and materials are usually the biggest spending categories.
Where do you see opportunities to make changes?
How could you cut out the busy work and use an evaluation culture approach to gain meaningful information?
What are your biggest questions right now?
These could be things that came up while you were answering these questions, things you don’t understand, or things you wish you had answers to in general.
How hard was it to answer these questions?
The answer to this last question will help you get a sense for your familiarity and comfort with the evaluation processes in your organization and it will give you some ideas on where you can focus your energy next year.
Extra credit! Journal or reflect on the following questions:
Why did we do our evaluation this way?
Why does our organization do evaluation at all?
What is my favorite part of our evaluation process?
What don’t I like about the evaluation process?
If I could change anything, what would I do differently?
From here you can start to put together your plan. Prioritize the things that were the most valuable. Think about how to change or get rid of the busy work and things that didn’t give you useful information. Think about how you can answer lingering questions. Brainstorm what this would look like in your organization. And finally, think about what kind of budget, staff involvement, and external support you will need to make it happen.
You did it! You have a first draft of an evaluation plan and a head start on the next year!
Want some help with the process?
Download the Evaluation Culture Workshop Series or schedule a Q&A
Get in touch with me or schedule a consultation to book a planning session.
And keep an eye out for more tools to help you build this process in your organization!