Stakeholders part 2

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Stakeholders part 2
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Factors which increase utilization

• Most important factor in evaluations
  that are utilized is having someone who cares
  enough about the evaluation and is in some way
  connected to the program take responsibility for
  getting the info to the right people!
• find out and bringing together people want to
  know something in the agency- finding people who
  have a genuine interest in evaluation data
• 2. Find strategically located people, formal and
  informal, who are enthusiastic and committed.
  (engaging someone lower in hierarchy may pay off
  more than engaging someone higher who is
  disinterested.
• 3. Those most utilized are those that directly
  answer the questions of those identified as the
  primary stakeholders.
• RFPs may be written by individuals other than the
  decision makers who really need and want the
  evaluation information. It behooves evaluators to
  clarify the degree to which an RFP fully reflects
  the information needs of interested government
  officials, board members, funders, managers, or
  others.
• 4. The personal factor is imperative
• Evaluators who are both interested in and
  knowledgeable about what they are doing, and who
  are committed to seeing their findings used in
  answering decision makers questions, will
  provide the most useful information to those
  decision makers.
• 5.All evaluations are have political
  implications. Have some idea of what they are
  ahead of time. All decisions are political! Who
  has the power? Who wants the power? As long as
  there are vested interests evaluations are
  political

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• How not to get your evaluation used
• 1. make all of the decisions about evaluation
  questions yourself
• 2. Do not identify specific stakeholders but
  vague and faceless audiences i.e. the feds,
  consumers etc.
• 3. Focus on decisions and information rather
  than decision-makers and information users.
• 4. Decide ahead of time that the funders of the
  evaluation or the program are the sole
  stakeholders
• 5. Target the evaluation to an organization
  rather than individuals. The question is Who
  wants to know.

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• Power of an evaluation is directly related
  to the degree to which it reduces the uncertainty
  of the stakeholders.
• 1. not all information is useful. Maybe useful to
  some and harmful to others.
• 2. Not all people are information users
• 3. Until actually used, information is only
  potential power. Political viability. Who will
  make sure this is used - Always anticipate ahead
  of time the different positions of vested
  interest groups.

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• Different evaluators get different roles
  internal vs external
• Internal
• involving stakeholders is difficult because
  superiors expect evaluator to do the evaluation
  rather than facilitate it.
• Internal evaluators often asked for public
  relations info rather than a true evaluation
• Get put upon with trivial data gathering and
  report writing
• Excluded from major decisions
• No power to utilize evaluation

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• QUESTION THREE WHAT ARE THE QUESTIONS THE
  STAKEHOLDERS WISH TO HAVE ANSWERED?
• The purpose of an evaluation is to ANSWER
  STAKEHOLDERS QUESTIONS!!!!!

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• begin to talk with INITIATING STAKEHOLERS
• begin to talk with PRIMARY STAKEHOLERS
• a. dialogue with both
• b. ask open-end questions
• c. build a relationship
• d. write down everything they tell you
• e. let them know this is only a proposal.
• begin to put your notes together
• see if questions are the same
• see what questions go together under a larger
  question
• if too many, go back to the stakeholders you
  talked to and ask them to rate the questions in
  order of priority
• you must identify and talk to at least three
  stakeholders!!!!!!!

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One of the most helpful questions to ask your
stakeholders

• What are your ideas about what the program should
  accomplish/achieve?
• This question lets you know what they think their
  objectives and outcomes are
• Then when you find the program objectives, you
  can compare them to the stakeholders version
• If they are different, you can take them back to
  the stakeholders and have them reflect on what
  objectives are necessary
• If you find no program objectives outcomes, or if
  they are too vague, you are now ready to back to
  the stakeholders and help them formulate some