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IG-ology: Mindfulness Practices at Conferences

Nick Stilp

September 25, 2018 - 10:31am

In reference to a hectic conference season, IG Associate Consultant Nick Stilp shares that "leveraging mindfulness properly during a conference can revitalize mental clarity and open up the cognitive resources needed for learning and critical thinking."

For this month’s IG-Ology, Nick Stilp details his mindfulness journey and provides some simple practices you can use to stay mindful and present this conference season. With these tips, ideally, by the end of the day, you won’t experience that conference drain and fatigue that we are all too familiar with.

A Tale of Two Surveys

Becky Stewart and Daren Nyquist

August 27, 2018 - 11:19am

Surveys can take all shapes and sizes. And like any data collection, they require adaptability throughout the process. Two statewide surveys of the same number of people illustrate how surveys look differently—and provide different insights—based on your core principles.

Graphic image that includes various icons of things you would find at a State Fair, such as food, farm animals, and rides. The text states "Evaluation at the State Fair!"

Evaluation at the State Fair

The Improve Group

August 27, 2018 - 11:09am

Here at The Improve Group we always look forward to State Fair season. And being evaluators, we decided to ask IGers what they would like to evaluate at the Minnesota State Fair. Check out how fun evaluation can be when combined with fried food, a plethora of dairy, animals, and warm weather!

If you could evaluate one thing at the State Fair, what would it be?

Russell Barnes: Does one Sweet Martha’s Cookie Jar give you more cookies than the other?

IG-Ology: Where do I start with qualitative analysis?

Amy Cyr

August 27, 2018 - 10:58am

Amy Cyr Headshot Hi, I’m Amy Cyr, a Senior Consultant at IG. For this month’s IG-Ology, I want to answer a question that comes up a lot with qualitative analysis: “Where do I start?” While several considerations go into planning an analysis approach, a place I like to start is with the evaluation or research questions. How specific are they?

Collage of headshots of all of our new staff members - Brita Blesi, Ashley Boat, Colleen Casey, Jacqueline Frazier, Moira Gaidzanwa, Isabel Marsh, James Randle, and Alyssa Scott

New Employees Join our Growing, Talented Team

July 31, 2018 - 12:41pm

It has been an exciting first half of the year here at The Improve Group as we welcomed several new employees! We continue to see growth in our work and in our clients’ needs - and this new cohort of IG-ers brings exciting new talents and experiences that will help meet those needs. Please join us in welcoming:

IG-ology: Emerging Findings Meeting

Jill Lipski Cain

July 31, 2018 - 12:34pm

Jill Lipski Cain Headshot Hi, I’m Jill Lipski Cain, a Managing Consultant here at IG. This month, I want to tell you about one of IG’s important tools in collaborative, participatory, utilization-focused evaluation projects—an emerging findings meeting.

Visual image that says "Press Release: THE STAKMAN-BORLAUGH CENTER, THE IMPROVE GROUP, ANNOUNCE PROJECT FOR USDA FOOD FOR PROGRESS POST-PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT"

The Stakman-Borlaug Center Announces Projects for Food for Progress Post-Project Sustainability Assessment

Stakman-Borlaug Center

July 9, 2018 - 4:52pm

Working in collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA/FAS) and The Improve Group, the University of Minnesota's Stakman-Borlaug Center (SBC) has identified the three closed Food for Progress agriculture assistance projects for

Client Spotlight: Second Harvest Heartland

Claire Stoscheck

June 26, 2018 - 6:59pm

Did you know June is National Hunger Awareness Month? According to the World Food Program, there are more hungry people in the world than in the combined populations of the U.S., Canada, and the European Union.

IG-ology: Logic Models

Courtney Clingan

June 26, 2018 - 10:20am

Courtney Clingan Headshot Hi!

Graphic image of a couple holding hands and walking together in a park. The graphic says "Client Report: Minnesota Outdoor Activities Survey"

Just in Time for Summer: A Survey on Minnesota Outdoor Activities

The Improve Group

June 6, 2018 - 10:53am

Do you get annoyed by those pesky mosquitoes in the summer? You're not alone! Outdoor pests are the most prevalent barrier to outdoor recreation in the state—55 percent of Minnesotans cited them as a deterrence. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources recently released its findings of the Minnesota Outdoor Activities Survey; IG partnered with the agency to conduct this survey. For this project, we surveyed nearly 2,000 Minnesotans on how they view and participate in outdoor activities—from hiking to hunting.

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