The annual American Evaluation Association focused this year on evaluation and complexity. ODI's Simon Hearn presented on Outcome Mapping in complex scenarios.
Ramalingam et al. (2008), describe development plans, strategies and goal setting as ‘attempts to picture how things work in that country and provide an illusion of control’. The reality, however, is that development is not a straight input-output-outcome-impact motorway, but a road with curves and crossings in a changing landscape.
This tool provides a structure for gathering data, synthesising the findings, and making recommendations about the best way forward for knowledge and learning initiatives. It ensures recommendations are well grounded in broader structural, operational and policy factors affecting an organisation.
The SECI principles provide a set of pointers that can be used by managers to ensure that they are facilitating effective knowledge and learning in their ongoing projects and programmes.
Blame vs Gain Behaviours is a very simple tool that can help managers reflect on their own attitudes and responses to mistakes.
Force Field Analysis was developed by Kurt Lewin (1951) and is widely used to inform decision making, particularly in planning and implementing change management programmes in organisations.
Activity-based Knowledge Mapping is a tool which enables knowledge inputs and outputs to be linked in a systematic fashion to ongoing organisational activities and processes.