Words Matter
The daughter of two writers learns this in the womb: language choices matter.
Not too long ago, I was reminded of this when reading the article aptly titled, “Quantifying Impact Alienates Nonprofit Employees,” which spoke of research by Julia Morley of the London School of Economics.
Over the decades, I have worked with many organizations helping them to introduce not the language of impact evaluation but impact evaluation itself. More often than not, there is an immediate and palpable resistance.
It seems that when we Read more
November 15th, 2019 0 Comment Shake Your Evaluation Pompoms
Whenever I teach evaluation, I warn the group that I carry pompoms. I self-identify as a program evaluation cheerleader, although early on I struggled with understanding the source of others’ resistance to evaluation. It seems people often equate program—or impact—evaluation with their trepidations about their own performance evaluation.
Two completely different things, right? Even if one of the variables in the program evaluation design is “employee,” it isn’t to determine whether employees are doing their jobs, but rather, to see if different employees have different Read more
