Result and indicator exercise
It would be hard to show that a single agency had made a difference toward these
examples, but the chance of doing so would increase if it were part of a very broad
coalition. The challenge for broad coalitions is finding common ground and
agreeing on a result.
If needed, Mark Friedman suggests using this exercise to help your group reach a
common purpose (e.g., agree on a result) and start to tighten the focus of
attention to a small number of characteristics that can be used to measure
progress toward the selected result(s). (http://www.raguide.org/RA/results_to_what_works_exercise.htm):
- Start with several flip-sheets, with "Results: what quality of life conditions do we
want?" written on one, "Experience: how would it feel to be in a community with this
result?" on another, "Indicators: how would we measure that experience/condition?" on
a third, and "What works?" on the fourth.
- Ask each person in the group to complete a statement such as:
We want children who are...
or
We want a community that is...
- Write each statement on the appropriate piece of paper. Most of these statements will
be results. During this step and for each of the others, if someone makes a statement
that fits better on one of the other sheets, write in on that sheet while explaning why it
fits better there.
- Then move to the Experience sheet, and ask each person to think about a result in terms of
everyday experience for someone in the community. For example, ask "What would your
neighbor see, hear or feel that meant that... (result) ...where you live?"
- Then move to the Indicators sheet, and ask each person what they would count to measure a
statement from the experience sheet, and how they would count it.
These statements can then be grouped and modified to eventually arrive at a small number that
everyone can support.
If you have more that one result, they should all be equally important.
Although the indicators identified by this exercise are a good place to start, you may want
to ask others to suggest more. This is an important step, because what you measure
will come to define this work as a whole. If you miss a key factor or select a key
indicator that has serious flaws, the credibility of the accountability process may come
into question.
