Organizational Evaluation has five essential components including: a) Needs Analysis, b) Planning, c) Implementation, d) Assessment, and e) Utilization of Results.
Needs Analysis
Understanding the organizational situation, or the question at hand, is the first step in defining an evaluation strategy. Needs analyses are used to understand the issue from all sides in order to develop an optimal strategy. This includes identifying and understanding the various needs of all internal and external stakeholders, relevant regulatory entities, and the organizational or extra-organizational resources (financial, personnel, physical, etc.) that could be employed.
Planning
From the needs analysis, a full picture of the initiative, situation, or general issue can be constructed. Then, we focus on the type of information required to address the issue/issues identified in the needs analysis. From here, we develop clear and concrete goals, objectives, and potential measures that would be needed to know if we are successful. From the creation of expected outcomes, we can then identify strategies to address them by developing an action plan. This sometimes involves creating policies and procedures, identifying potential new personnel or resources required to succeed, revising or revamping existing practices, etc.
The action plan then contains tasks, dates, and strategies for success. The plan includes intermediate and long-term steps and actions with milestones, long and short-term dates, data collection periods, intermediate and final review periods. Each plan is unique and stems from the needs analysis and institutional goals, and the plan can, and should, grow and evolve over time as new issues or understandings of the situation arise.
Implementation
From planning, we implement the plan and monitor its implementation. As the plan is implemented, careful collection of data/evidence is done throughout the process to know if the implementation is unfolding as expected. While we can try to plan for everything, we sometimes identifying new areas or aspects that need further development; therefore, the we sometimes revert back to planning when new things arise. As data/evidence are gathered, we develop and understanding of the efficacy of the strategy and whether it needs additional monitoring or modification. This helps to solidify the plan’s implementation, or to correct as needed.
Use of Results
From the results garnered in the implementation phase, we monitored and adjusted as needed to arrive at the final results. While this occurs throughout the process, the final evaluation and analysis of the data allows for determining the next steps in the process.
While the results portion of the process allows for reflection on where we are and how far we have come, the next phase is reevaluating and conducting a new needs analysis to continue improvement. The final steps involve evaluating the process and our work over the period in order to develop clear and strategic pathways forward for next time.
While some organizations can continue on without our help, we are there to assist in the next phase of your organizational evaluation if needed!