Everyone’s Judging All the Time Anyway
We simply can’t get away from this fact: everyone’s judging all the time anyway. Since birth, we have reacted to the world, letting it know what was pleasurable or not. We have been socialized to do this and do so habitually, automatically. We seem to have an opinion about everything, whether or not we have a basis for it.
This came up in a conversation I was having with a friend, Rita. I was explaining the recent and current work I was doing. This included two masterclasses I delivered for business people in the Balkans. Not knowing much about my audience, I relied on research conducted about businesses and people in the region (country-wide generalizations) to make educated guesses as to what might be relevant and important to them. Further, I imagined what stories might fit their experiences and what exercises might engage them. As it turns out, I seemed to be wrong on many counts and the level of active engagement was low. Mostly crickets (silence). “They are shy,” I was told by the educational director.
In explaining this situation to Rita, I shared the philosophical stance that I took: everything was an experiment and as such, it was foremost about the learning (for myself and them), only secondarily about getting it right, the concern of failing or succeeding. She found this puzzling.
I explained that while that was my point of view, my clients often had different perspectives on the matter of ‘success’. It seemed to vary by situation and stakeholder group. What constituted success for participants was different from their managers, was different from Human Resources (HR), and was different from decision-makers like the CEO or CFO. I said that it was my approach to discuss evaluation with my client organization when initially discussing and negotiating our contract; it would become integral to the work, not something additional or an afterthought.
Depending on the project, its scope, and its importance, the level of evaluation I could negotiate would vary. I have several models I used and some heuristics I can apply to make an argument for what might be appropriate. More often than not we could find common ground. I’ve noticed that few coaches and only some consultants seem to build in systematic evaluation as an integrated part of their program. In my opinion, doing so does make a difference.
My clients will evaluate my work. Whether I conduct an evaluation or not, the different stakeholders will form their own opinions about the success of the intervention. Their focus may be on their reactions to their learning experience, what they learned, how they applied that learning in their work situation, the impact of those new behaviors on others’ performance and that of the business, and/or even the return on investment for their efforts. Depending on granularity desired (informing the decisions that need to be made, based on the questions that get answered), clients are interested in a solution’s efficacy (was it successful?), its worthiness (was it worth it?), and even its ‘stickiness’ (were its effects sustained?).
Rita, though not a businessperson (in fact, a retired children’s librarian), could understand the logic and the power of giving clients relevant data and a reasoned basis for making their evaluation. She could appreciate the value of coaching a decision-maker on how to make a compelling yet credible argument to others for this choice and resource allocation rather than another one.
As change agents, what do you do to evaluate your work? What concerns do you have and how do you address and mitigate them? How do you include your clients in that decision and process?
As clients, how interested are you in evaluating the effectiveness of the interventions you purchase? In the reliability of those evaluation efforts? Does it matter if you are making sound decisions and investments? Does it matter if you can get smarter about this over time?
I’d love to hear your experiences and thoughts about this rich topic. I welcome your comments.
#selfleadership #designyourlife #evaluation