With over 200 attendees and dozens of speakers, Minnesota Evaluation Studies Institute (MESI) 2012 was a stimulating, high quality conference for evaluators, students and anyone seeking more knowledge about the field. MESI provides a casual environment conducive to talking 1:1 with experts and sharing your own experience. I was pleased to meet a number of people who were not evaluators by trade, but there to learn about integrating evaluation in their own work. This year’s theme was “Evaluation in a Complex World: Changing Realities, Changing Expectations.” Attendees gained several perspectives on how to best approach – and use – evaluation in the reality of politics and budgets, and in opportunities for cross-cultural learning. Here’s a list of what I enjoyed learning at MESI and plan to incorporate into my practice:
- 25 Low-Cost/No-Cost tools for program evaluation. Susan Kistler of American Evaluation Association presented an awesome collection of digital tools such as tools for data cleaning, social network analysis, data visualization, and mind mapping. I’ve already bookmarked the following: Kuler (color schemes from Adobe), Google Alerts (to stay on top of latest news in your client’s profession), Google Refine (data cleaning tool), Tableau (can be used as an interactive dashboard) and Official Seal Generator (quirky tool for making your own personal stamp/seal).
- Facilitation Skills for Evaluators. Jean King shared 11 strategies to interact with stakeholders in evaluation and foster positive experiences. Her book, Interactive evaluation practice: Managing the interpersonal dynamics of program evaluation, is due out soon and helps bridge the gap between the theory of evaluation and its practice. I left with a practical handout on each strategy and the session reinforced for me how physical movement, tangible tools and visualization are very effective for learning.
- Key things funders look for in evaluators. A panel from the St. Paul, Bremer, and Minneapolis Foundations shared what funders look for in evaluators: (1) interpretation - not translation - of what the grantee is doing, (2) be a collaborator -- the evaluation is by and for the grantee and the funder, (3) ability to help grantee narrow in on most important measures, (4) build evaluation capacity in the foundation, and (5) have passion for what you’re doing as an evaluator.
- Ripple Effect Mapping. As part of an impact evaluation, the Extension Center for Community Vitality created a retrospective tool called Ripple Effect Mapping (a twist on Mind Mapping) to better understand intended and unintended results of a program, intervention or collaborative for individuals, groups and/or communities. A group of 8 to 12 stakeholders create a digital map of the changes they have seen. Versions of maps look sort of like trees with branches reflecting categories, themes, and examples. I have experience in asset mapping so this really stood out to explore further and potentially use in the right situation.
- Meaningful and Accessible Reporting. Laura Bloomberg from the Humphrey School for Public Affairs presented several key tactics to make reporting matter: (1) Be empathetic to those you are reporting to and follow the platinum rule of “do unto others as they would like to be treated,” (2) Follow the approach, Message-Audience-Medium (in that order) when creating a report. Identify what you want them to remember, who you want to read/review the report or act on its findings, and what factors will carry the message. (3) The evaluator’s reporting tool kit includes: the ability to talk about what is being evaluated and findings to someone unfamiliar with the project, writing a killer paragraph, keep a written report to 10 pages or less, and using archetypes, composites and illustrations. And (4) applying the test of Endurance, Leverage and Essential. Reports pass this test if findings will be of value to evaluation users past the time the report is read, can help obtain more funding, etc., and provide users with necessary information for program development.
