Building Organizational Commitment and Project Readiness

Project evaluation is designed to inform your organization on their effectiveness and efficiency during all stages of a project.  Organizations that stand to benefit the most from a project evaluation have an organizational commitment to evaluation already in place.  If staff members do not understand the importance of evaluation, why would they take their role in evaluation seriously?  Why would the board of directors fund project evaluation if they cannot justify the expenditure? It is therefore important to cultivate the support of your board and staff.  This may require some formal training and encouragement.

Organizational commitment is one criterion in understanding your organization’s project readiness.  Other criteria like a clear project concept and knowing the project beneficiary group are also important.  Review this Project Readiness Checklist for a listing of the main criteria to consider before conducting a project evaluation. 

When your organization is prepared to move forward with the project, establish an evaluation team or identify an individual to oversee the evaluation component of the project.  Review ‘what to consider when establishing an evaluation team’ before putting your team together.

Remember that it’s easy to get bogged down just documenting results, but these results are only as useful as what you do with them.  It is critical to give your staff and volunteers structured time to step back from the hectic pace of daily program delivery and reflect on what they have accomplished.  This will enable you to become more strategic in your day-to-day work. 

According to Peter Senge (1990:3) learning organizations are:

“… organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together.” [1]

Learning and assessment sessions become a wise investment and can have a significant impact on the quality and effectiveness of your program.  Results-based program management is about building a learning culture into your organization.

[1] In Peter Senge and the theory and practice of the learning organization, http://www.infed.org/thinkers/senge.htm (May 4/04).