Guidelines and Resources for Project Evaluation Phase of Consulting

Much of the content of this topic came from this book:

• © Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

Sections in this Topic Include:

Description
Goals for This Project Evaluation Phase
Some Evaluation Questions to Consider When Doing a
Results Evaluation
Reasons Why Success Might Not Have Been Achieved
When Clients Are Reluctant to Do Final Evaluation
If Desired Results Are Still Not Achieved, Cycle Back?
Some Useful Resources and Skills for This Phase
Also See These Closely Related Topics

Strongly Recommended Pre-Reading

All About Consulting
– Types, Skills and Approaches
Collaborative
Consulting for Performance, Change and Learning
Guidelines
and Resources for Contracting Phase of Consulting
Guidelines
and Resources for Discovery Phase of Consulting
Guidelines
and Resources for Action Planning Phase of Consulting
Guidelines
and Resources for Implementation Phase of Consulting

NOTE: There can be very different styles in going through this project evaluation
phase, ranging from a carefully specified and sequential set of activities to
an unfolding and nonsequential arrangement. See the very Different
Approaches in Consulting. For the sake of being highly informative with
clear and well organized information, this topic will explain a rather orderly,
but highly collaborative approach to project evaluation.

(This phase is sometimes referred to as the Evaluation and Adoption Phase,
although some practitioners separate the Adoption phase and consider it to be
focused especially on ensuring the client has adopted the new practices needed
to solve the client’s problem — and learned how to solve similar problems into
the future.)

Description

By now, you and your client have made a consistent and focused attempt to implement
the action plans (perhaps combined into an Implementation Plan). The primary
purpose of this phase is to assess whether success was achieved in the project.
Success
is usually defined during the contracting
phase and sometimes at the end of the discovery
phase after recommendations have been approved by the client. The purpose
also is to ensure that your client’s organization has adopted the new
approaches and practices to avoid or manage similar situations in the future.
This is the phase of the consulting process that really pays off if you have
been working collaboratively with your client.

Goals of This Project Evaluation Phase

1. Decide if the issues that were identified during discovery have been successfully
   addressed.
2. Decide if the vision for change has been achieved (that is, if your client
   decided to develop a vision for change during the project).
3. Decide if the action plans have been implemented.
4. Decide whether it is necessary to cycle back in the consulting cycle or
   proceed to the next phase, project
   termination.

Some Evaluation Questions to Consider
When Doing a Results Evaluation

1. Has success, and any other desired goals and outcomes, been achieved? If
   not, what else needs to be achieved?
2. Have the critical success factors identified during the contracting
   phase been achieved?
3. Has the vision for change been achieved? If not, what else needs to be
   accomplished to achieve the vision? How should that be done?
4. Have all of the action plans been implemented? If not, which necessary
   action plans should still be implemented?
5. Has the organization successfully adopted the new structures and practices
   to avoid problems like this in the future?

Reasons Why Success Might Not Have Been
Achieved

When projects do not achieve success, it is often one or more of the following
reasons:

• The overall situation changed. In small organizations, a project might successfully
  identify a major issue and actions to address that issue, only to discover
  that a different, major issue had suddenly become much more important.
• Key people succumbed to burnout. The stress of the change effort was such
  that some people lost their ability to sustain momentum and focus on their
  work. Consequently, they were longer effective in the project – or their
  jobs.
• Key people left the organization. Small organizations tend to have a high
  employee turnover rate – employees come and go rather quickly. It can
  be a disaster to a project if your client suddenly left the organization.
• The relationship between you and your client degenerated. If you and your
  client have not worked at sustaining an effective working relationship, it
  can fall apart completely during the rigors of implementation.
• Key people in the organization refused to implement the action plans. If
  you and your client have not met the Requirements
  for Successful Organizational Change, then people in the organization
  are much less likely to implement the plans for change.

When Clients Are Reluctant to Do Final Evaluation

Surprisingly, it can be a major challenge to get the client to undergo a final
evaluation of the results of the project, especially if it already seems clear
that the project has been successful. When that happens, consider the following
guidelines.

• Ensure that your evaluation design suits the nature and needs of your client’s
  organization.
• Explain what evaluation is. Help clients realize that they are probably
  already doing evaluation, but just not calling it that.
• Explain that evaluation focuses on relevance, utility and practicality,
  not just on complete accuracy, validity and reliability.
• Explain that evaluation is often associated with a great deal of learning.

If Desired Results Are Still Not Achieved, Cycle
Back?

If, after having conducted most or all of the project evaluation, it is clear
that success has not been achieved, then consider the following guidelines.

• Be authentic. Respectfully name what you are seeing or hearing (the evidence)
  for why you believe the project is not achieving success. Do not include any
  judgment about people in the organization.
• Realize your client’s lack of participation may be a form of project
  resistance. If so, then be authentic to address that, as mentioned above.
• Respectfully acknowledge the other priorities of your client.
• Remind your client of the importance of achieving the success.
• Remind your client: choices about the project are choices about the organization.
• Mutually decide if you should cycle back to an earlier consulting
  phase in the project.

The upcoming project
termination phase shares ideas when it seems the project needs to be terminated.

Some Useful Resources and Skills for
This Phase

The
Evaluation of Organization Development Interventions: An Empirical Study
Best
Practice in Organization Development Evaluation
How to Measure
the Intervention Process?
Thinking
Differently about evaluating OD interventions
Evaluating
Organization Development Interventions
A
Framework To Evaluate Consulting Efforts

How to
Design Successful Evaluation and Assessment Plans
Basic
Guide to Program Evaluation (use to conduct evaluations during and at the end
of the project)
Evaluation Activities
in Organizations (all kinds)

Also See These Closely Related Topics

Guidelines
and Resources for Termination Phase of Consulting

Overview
of the Field of Organization Development
Guidelines, Methods and Resources for Organizational Change Agents
Competencies
and Resources for Organizational Change Agents

Additional Library Resources in the Category of Organizational
Change and Development

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books