This morning on The Change Agent’s Dilemma radio show, I interviewed Maria Gajewski, Chief Assistant to World Savers at Changing River Consulting.

As an evaluator for nonprofits, Maria is an expert at determining whether an initiative is having its intended effect.  On the show, she shared how evaluation works and when you would want to evaluate your change initiative.  She also shares the tools she uses in the evaluation process.

Maria has provided a summary of today’s discussion for Enclaria listeners.  Download the PDF here.

Listen here (30 minutes):

Be sure to visit the radio show page to listen to past episodes and subscribe to the show.

It’s been said, “What gets measured gets done.”  Taken at face value, the statement means that if you want something done, then simply measure it.  Anyone who has tried to implement a balanced scorecard knows that just because you measure something doesn’t mean it’s automatically going to change.  There are a number of caveats and prerequisites to the well-worn platitude.  The following are a few ways to make measures work. [Read more...]

Yesterday I went to a meeting of the Association for Strategic Planning Atlanta, where some members of a team at Deloitte presented their process for strategic measure selection.  One step in the process, after brainstorming measures for each strategic objective, was to put the measures through an evaluation funnel.  There were four key criteria for selecting measures:

1. Strategic. Does the measure track progress toward achieving the objective?
2. Actionable. Will you be able to do anything about it?  Will it help you make decisions?
3. Operational. Is it something you are able to collect?  Can people understand it and do they believe it?
4. Economical. Is the cost of collecting the information feasible?

After measures made it through the evaluation funnel, they would be further whittled down until there were 1 or 2 measures for each strategic objective.

Would the measures for your change initiative make it through the funnel?

My friend Candace said to me one day, “Did you know that shampoo doesn’t need to lather in order to do its job?” She told me that when she was growing up in South Africa, shampoo there did not lather. When she moved to the U.S., she was surprised at the foaming action exhibited by all shampoos.

Evidently, we need some kind of proof that the shampoo is working.  We need reassurance that a product is doing its job when outcome indicators are not immediately available – in other words, we need leading indicators to tell us that we are on track to attain the outcome we expect.  The more lather, the cleaner the hair, right?

I’ve always had trouble with the concept of leading indicators, because the logical, literal side of my brain tells me that all measures are lagging because some event has to occur before something can be measured.  However, the leading or lagging description does not tell us the timing of the measure to the event; it tells us the timing relative to each other.  Leading indicators are predictions of future lagging measures.  If something is a leading indicator, it shows whether you are progressing toward the end result – the lagging measure.  So, for example, if the lagging (outcome) measure is the amount of weight you’ve lost, then the leading (process) indicator may be the number of times you go to the gym, or how many calories you consume per day.

When implementing organizational change, it is important to have and communicate short term wins.  One way to do this is with leading indicators.  By making the shampoo lather, you can see it is working without having to wait for the final evidence.

Inquiry:  What is your shampoo lather?