The challenge

As organisations become more participatory, empowering staff and working with distributed leadership the challenge is evaluating and researching in the organisation in a way that is accepted.

What we do

We use a self-as-control approach – that is, in interviews and/or questionnaires we will ask about

• how people see and experience things now compared with before

• how they feel about this

• what has helped or hindered any changes

Throughout our data collection and analysis we use our three-fold performance, leadership and management framework, namely the three “Stances” – what we value or “stand for”:

1. Doing things well – good practice

2. Doing things better – improving what we already do, moving standards forward

3. Doing better things – working together across diverse boundaries to create something new and better

We use a number of methods to achieve this including:

Multi-Stakeholder events, bringing together a number of people – usually between 30 and 100 – who reflect the various stakeholder groups involved in the project being evaluated.

Complexity Mapping, where one or two central themes are chosen in consultation with the sponsoring organisation where thoughts, ideas and feelings connected to that central topic are shared. Then in a defined single-stakeholder group, people are asked to choose those items that are of most significance to them. These are highlighted to make visible differences and similarities between the different groups.

World Café, a process were participants sit in small diverse-stakeholder groups at several tables and explore an issue being considered; either one common issue at each of the tables or, alternatively, different ones at different tables.

These methods not only provide useful data but, resulting from the social interaction involved, create a positive climate for exploring and working together across diverse stakeholder boundaries.

The final decisions on methods are made in consultation with you

Please get in touch so that we can arrange a time to discuss your research and evaluation requirements so that we can design a programme of support to best suit your needs