aes18 International Evaluation Conference

Matt Healey (First Person Consulting)

The increasing appetite from government, philanthropy and other funders for innovative approaches to complex social and environment challenges has driven many towards such trends as design thinking, human centred design and co-design. These design approaches emphasise (among other things) a willingness to try and fail, and, most importantly, to learn from that failure. 

For evaluators, failure (or the potential for failure) is a risk to be mitigated. Should failure occur or mistakes be made, they tend to be kept in-house or otherwise not shared more broadly. To fail means disappointing clients, stakeholders (internal and external) and the communities we seek to benefit. 

Given that, and the increasing emphasis on integrating design into our practice, how can evaluators come together to learn from our collective failures and mistakes? How can we pass this learning onto the next generation of evaluators in a way that acknowledges their own experiences and perspectives? What are the opportunities unearthed for the evaluation sector and field by this failure?

This interactive session addresses these questions through facilitated discussion and shared reflection. Through a mix of lightning talks, small group discussions and whole room consensus-making, the session will elicit sharing about times that mistakes were made and what lessons can be learned from those mistakes—for conference attendees and the field of evaluation.

This session will result in a set of agreed upon principles that (hopefully) lay the groundwork for the future sharing of instances where mistakes were made and the lessons learned. This session will be guided by a set of house rules to ensure that attendees feel comfortable in sharing. Upon entry, participants will provide their name, contact details and consent to these principles, which will also enable follow-up after the session.