Sketch diagrams are powerful tools for visualizing complex programs and systems. This simple technique literally gets people on the same page. Mapping out a service or product ecosystem can be a complicated endeavour. There is the entire field of systemic design that focuses on tools and strategies to engage users for starters. There are approaches […]
Systems Diagrams Made Simple Read More »
Illustrating action points within a complex system challenges evaluation users. Time to call on your friendly neighbourhood spidergram for help. Visualizing complex systems is a challenge within strategy, foresight, and evaluation because each component of the system is interconnected with others. Influence on one of these is likely to influence others. From an action standpoint,
The Amazing Spidergram Read More »
Innovators — those seeking to take an idea for a product, service, or policy and make it real — usually have a pretty clear sense of what they are trying to achieve with their innovation. This is the primary purpose and may reflect where the innovation achieves the greatest impact. But is this all it does?
Uncovering Layers of an Innovation’s Impact Read More »
Evaluative thinking is at the heart of evaluation, yet it’s remarkably challenging to do in practice. To help strengthen those evaluative neural pathways, we offer some questions to aid you in developing your evaluative thinking skills. To begin, let’s first look at this odd concept of ‘evaluative thinking’. Tom Grayson’s recent post on the AEA
Three Questions for Evaluative Thinking Read More »
Developmental Evaluation (DE) was first proposed by Michael Quinn Patton with the support of colleagues who have wrestled with the problem of dealing with complexity in human systems and the need to provide structured, useful, actionable information to make decisions to support innovation. DE has been described as being akin to taking a classic ‘road
Developmental Evaluation: A Short Introduction Read More »
