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Evaluator as a Thought Partner
thought partner /thôt pärt'ǝr/ n. Another person who shares in the act or process of thinking towards the achievement of an action or endeavor.
Receiving a grant for a project can be one thing. Actually, meeting the objectives of the grant can be quite another. That is partly why there has been an increasing emphasis on evaluation.
Traditionally, the role of an evaluation has been more on monitoring and accountability. While those are still important components, there is also a growing emphasis to use evaluation to help teams understand how to achieve or even exceed the objectives of the project. In this expanded role, the evaluator serves as a thought partner.
Being a thought partner necessitates that an evaluator is able to marry together the "hard" skills such as deep evaluation experience, applied social science research methodology, quantitative and qualitiative analsyis along with "soft" skills such an understanding of human behavior and organizational development. By doing this the evaluator cannot only serve in a monitoring/accountability capacity, but help identify ways to improve on the implementation and thus, the outcomes of the project.
Why is that important? Because of money. A project with better demonstrated outcomes is in a position to attract more money. And at the end of the day it takes money to be able to run projects.
If we can be a thought partner for you and your team, give us a call at 937-242-7024.
Enjoy!
Lana J. Rucks, Ph.D.
Principal Consultant
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Webinar: Evaluation and Organizational Learning 
One of the potential impacts of evaluation work is on organizational learning particularly for strategic decision-making. Join Dr. Lana Rucks in which she will discuss how evaluation can be used to drive organizational learning.
When: Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Time: 1:00p EST/11:00a PST
Location: Any place you choose
Fee: Complimentary
Registration will open in September 2012.
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Article: Diverse experiences benefit critical thinking
Lana is thrilled to be a regular contributor to the Dayton B2B magazine. This article is one of her recent columns (click here to learn more about the magazine).
... One of the reasons that there is a connection between diverse experiences and excelling within one's field is that it expands your analogies for problem solving and helps you connect dots that otherwise would be difficult to connect. For example in music, if a particular section has become problematic or different to learn, one trick for correcting it is playing the notes using several different rhythms. Doing so helps to fix the problem. In essence, it is forcing you to look at the piece from a fresh perspective, to make you not just outside the box, but think from a new box ... click here to continue reading.
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Blog: When Fuzzy Wuzzy Isn't a Bear (But What You Need to  Measure) posted on Monday, July 24, 2012
I often have conversations with people who say they can't measure things (e.g., constructs) such as confidence or quality because they are ... well ... nebulous and very fuzzy. That's why I often encourage individuals who are not professional evaluators but who find evaluation as part of their responsibilities to consult with an evaluator who in addition to other characteristics has deep experience in conducting empirical social science research. A person with this type ... click here to continue reading.
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The Rucks Group ( www.therucksgroup.com) is a research and consulting firm that gathers, analyzes, and interprets data to enable our for-profit and non-profit clients to make quality strategic decisions. We specialize in providing services for evaluation & research, measurement, and capacity building. We invite you to contact us at 937-242-7024 or by email at info@therucksgroup.com to talk about your current or potential evaluation needs.
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What we've been up to
Being a Thought Partner
When thinking of an evaluator as a thought partner, the conversation naturally focuses on the distinction between a metric and an evaluation. While a metric tells you "where you are"; an evaluation tells you "how you got there." Or more often than not, it is understanding "why we haven't gotten there."
Working with clients to understand the factors that are impeding desired outcomes is at the heart of being a thought partner.
As one example, we worked with a client who submitted material to an advisory board for review prior to a larger dissemination. The feedback was ... well ... disappointing. The advisory board questioned the very premise of a project that the team received nearly a quarter of a million dollars to implement.
We kept listening intensely to their response to the feedback. Realizing that both the project team and the advisory board were made up of some really smart people, we kept trying to see the feedback from a different perspective. After a few discussions, we suggested that perhaps the materials didn't make the case strong enough and encouraged them to sit with the advisory board for clarification. They did. Through that discussion they were able to get an understanding of how others not connected to project would interpret what was developed and made modifications.
In a nutshell, in addition to the formal components of our work like evaluation design, data analysis, and report writing, an evaluator should help think through these types of issues.
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