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Sections in this Topic Include:
Description
Goals for This Project Evaluation Phase
Some Evaluation Questions to Consider When Doing a
Results Evaluation
Reasons Why Success Might Not Have Been Achieved
When Clients Are Reluctant to Do a Final Evaluation
If Desired Results Are Still Not Achieved, Cycle Back?
Some Useful Resources and Skills for This Phase
Also, See These Closely Related Topics
Strongly Recommended Pre-Reading
All About Consulting
– Types, Skills and Approaches
Collaborative
Consulting for Performance, Change and Learning
Guidelines
and Resources for the Contracting Phase of the Consulting
Guidelines
and Resources for the Discovery Phase of Consulting
Guidelines
and Resources for the Action Planning Phase of the Consulting
Guidelines
and Resources for the Implementation Phase of Consulting
NOTE: There can be very different styles in going through this project evaluation
phase, ranging from a carefully specified and sequential set of activities to
an unfolding and nonsequential arrangement. See the very Different
Approaches in Consulting. For the sake of being highly informative with
clear and well-organized information, this topic will explain a rather orderly,
but a highly collaborative approach to project evaluation.
(This phase is sometimes referred to as the Evaluation and Adoption Phase,
although some practitioners separate the Adoption phase and consider it to be
focused especially on ensuring the client has adopted the new practices needed
to solve the client’s problem — and learn how to solve similar problems into
the future.)
Description
| See a video about project evaluation, including overcoming barriers, benefits of evaluation, evaluation planning, questions to ask, and responses to results. From the Consultants Development Institute. |
By now, you and your client have made a consistent and focused attempt to implement
the action plans (perhaps combined into an Implementation Plan). The primary
purpose of this phase is to assess whether success was achieved in the project.
Success
is usually defined during the contracting
phase and sometimes at the end of the discovery
phase after recommendations have been approved by the client. The purpose
also is to ensure that your client’s organization has adopted the new
approaches and practices to avoid or manage similar situations in the future.
This is the phase of the consulting process that really pays off if you have
been working collaboratively with your client.
Goals of This Project Evaluation Phase
- Decide if the issues that were identified during discovery have been successfully
addressed. - Decide if the vision for change has been achieved (that is, if your client
decided to develop a vision for change during the project). - Decide if the action plans have been implemented.
- Decide whether it is necessary to cycle back in the consulting cycle or
proceed to the next phase, project
termination.
Some Evaluation Questions to Consider
When Doing a Results Evaluation
- Has success, and any other desired goals and outcomes, been achieved? If
not, what else needs to be achieved? - Have the critical success factors identified during the contracting
phase been achieved? - Has the vision for change been achieved? If not, what else needs to be
accomplished to achieve the vision? How should that be done? - Have all of the action plans been implemented? If not, which is necessary
action plans should still be implemented? - Has the organization successfully adopted the new structures and practices
to avoid problems like this in the future?
Reasons Why Success Might Not Have Been
Achieved
When projects do not achieve success, it is often one or more of the following
reasons:
- The overall situation changed. In small organizations, a project might successfully
identify a major issue and action to address that issue, only to discover
that a different, major issue has suddenly become much more important. - Key people succumbed to burnout. The stress of the change effort was such
that some people lost their ability to sustain momentum and focus on their
work. Consequently, they were longer effective in the project – or their
jobs. - Key people left the organization. Small organizations tend to have a high
employee turnover rate – employees come and go rather quickly. It can
be a disaster for a project if your client suddenly leaves the organization. - The relationship between you and your client degenerated. If you and your
client have not worked at sustaining an effective working relationship, it
can fall apart completely during the rigors of implementation. - Key people in the organization refused to implement the action plans. If
you and your client have not met the Requirements
For successful Organizational Change, the people in the organization
are much less likely to implement the plans for change.
When Clients Are Reluctant to Do a Final Evaluation
Surprisingly, it can be a major challenge to get the client to undergo a final
evaluation of the results of the project, especially if it already seems clear
that the project has been successful. When that happens, consider the following
guidelines.
- Ensure that your evaluation design suits the nature and needs of your client’s
organization. - Explain what evaluation is. Help clients realize that they are probably
already doing the evaluation, but just not calling it that. - Explain that evaluation focuses on relevance, utility, and practicality,
not just on complete accuracy, validity, and reliability. - Explain that evaluation is often associated with a great deal of learning.
If Desired Results Are Still Not Achieved, Cycle
Back?
If, after having conducted most or all of the project evaluation, it is clear
that success has not been achieved, then consider the following guidelines.
- Be authentic. Respectfully name what you are seeing or hearing (the evidence)
for why you believe the project is not achieving success. Do not include any
judgment about people in the organization. - Realize your client’s lack of participation may be a form of project
resistance. If so, then be authentic to address that, as mentioned above. - Respectfully acknowledge the other priorities of your client.
- Remind your client of the importance of achieving success.
- Remind your client: that choices about the project are choices about the organization.
- Mutually decide if you should cycle back to an earlier consulting
phase in the project.
The upcoming project
termination phase shares ideas when it seems the project needs to be terminated.
Some Useful Resources and Skills for
This Phase
The
Evaluation of Organization Development Interventions: An Empirical Study
Best
Practice in Organization Development Evaluation
How to Measure
the Intervention Process?
Thinking
Differently about evaluating OD interventions
Evaluating
Organization Development Interventions
A
Framework To Evaluate Consulting Efforts
How to
Design Successful Evaluation and Assessment Plans
Basic
Guide to Program Evaluation (used to conduct evaluations during and at the end
of the project)
Evaluation Activities
in Organizations (all kinds)
Also, See These Closely Related Topics
Guidelines
and Resources for the Termination Phase of Consulting
Overview
of the Field of Organization Development
Guidelines, Methods, and Resources for Organizational Change Agents
Competencies
and Resources for Organizational Change Agents
Additional Library Resources in the Category of Organizational
Change and Development
