DEVELOP TEAMS AND INDIVIDUALS

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DEVELOP TEAMS AND INDIVIDUALS
By Miss Alisa KaewKhao Code C62251
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DEVELOP TEAMS AND INDIVIDUALS

• In Develop Teams and Individuals, there are many
  components that need to be applied in accordance
  with the procedures to be able to reach the
  objective. So we understand the following
• Individual Learning Plans
• How to Interview Individual
• Questions you may use in interview
• Learning and Development Plan
• Team Learning Plans
• Learning Options
• Teams Performance
• Training and Other Development
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• Planning for Monitoring and Evaluation
• About Information What we want to know?
• Different Kinds of Information
• How will we get information?
• Who should be involved about this?

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INDIVIDUAL LEARNING PLANS

• What is an individual learning plan?
• An effective individual learning plan (ILP) is at
  the heart of assessment, learning, support and
• achievement. It helps the learner to become an
  active, motivated partner in learning.
• The ILP is a personalized, flexible route map to
  guide each learners journey a dynamic working
  document, owned and used by the learner,
  supported by teachers, employers and others a
  record of learning goals and progression routes,
  initial and diagnostic assessment information,
  learning targets, progress
• and achievements within different contexts for
  learning a communication aid between the learner
  and others who support the learning process in
  various contexts a way of making and reinforcing
  links and
• connections between topics, subject and personal,
  learning and thinking skills.

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INDIVIDUAL LEARNING PLANS (CONT.)

• In practice, this means learners using their ILP
  to
• record what they want to achieve on their
  learning journey their goals and progression
  options
• negotiate and plan exactly what they are going to
  do, how and when. The ILP will include
• learning targets with outcomes and timescales,
  and details of how success will be determined
  (success criteria)
• details of the resources, support and guidance
  the learner will use
• details of where and how the learning will take
  place.
• view every assessment as a learning opportunity
  and to plan for the next steps in learning
• reflect on
• what, and how, they learned
• what went well and why
• what went less well and why
• where they could use the skills and approaches
  again.

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INDIVIDUAL LEARNING PLANS (CONT.)

• Particularly effective practice identified in
  inspections includes
• Developing a proforma for an individual learning
  plan that does not just meet the needs of funding
  bodies but covers all the elements required for a
  programme of learning. The development of the
  best proformas has taken into account the need to
  provide sufficient space for updating them.
• Not completing individual learning plans in a
  rush to meet funding body requirements
  (inspectors still see the individual learning
  plan being completed and signed off in induction
  before initial assessment is fully completed so
  that a copy can be sent to the funding body).
• Examples of developing a second individual
  learning plan as a 'working document' used
  throughout the time a learner is with the
  provider, that is focused on delivery of
  learning, assessment, support and target setting.
• Delivery staff receiving training in order to
  understand the results of initial assessment,
  such as literacy, numeracy or language
  requirements, and their impact on learning. This
  includes other learner support needs such as
  dyslexia, to ensure that the individual learning
  plan reflects support, assessment arrangements
  and possible need for extra time.

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INDIVIDUAL LEARNING PLANS (CONT.)

• Taking account of previous experience and
  learning, so that targets and times to gain
  assessments in an area in which learners have
  previous experience are realistic and do not hold
  the progress of learners up. Plans are individual
  in developing targets that stretch learners and
  keep them focused on achieving realistic
  milestones.
• Ensuring that each learner has an individual
  learning plan, based on their initial assessment
  and mapping the route from that starting point to
  the achievement of individual goals, for example
  completing the full framework, or gaining
  sustainable employment.
• Involving the learner in creating the first draft
  of their learning plan, understanding the reason
  for its contents and updating the plan with the
  learner (and employer if applicable) as training
  progresses and circumstances change.
• Using the learning plan as a working document by
  checking progress against it during reviews or
  tutorial activities, amending target dates for
  milestones such as achievement of units, key
  skills or other qualifications as necessary.
• Planning in more detail for the short term
  targets and in outline for the longer term
  targets.

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INDIVIDUAL LEARNING PLANS (CONT.)

• Using the individual learning plan to record how
  any additional support needs, identified by
  initial assessment, are to be provided for. This
  helps keep everyone involved in training in the
  'loop' and helps eliminate support being given in
  isolation from the main training programme.
• There are several examples of work-based
  providers having targets that reflect particular
  types of 'model learner', for example ones who
  have previous experience or qualifications, or
  those with additional support needs. These act as
  a preliminary guide in setting targets which can
  then be altered as the learner progresses.
• Some providers have altered individual learning
  plans to facilitate 'fast tracking' of learners,
  for example where emigration or pregnancy might
  prevent completion.
• Some providers with good information technology
  resources have made individual learning plans
  available online, which can be updated. Sections
  can be printed for reference where access to
  computers is limited.
• Quality improvement systems such as internal
  audit and review focusing on how well plans are
  completed and how they may be improved in the
  future. Good practice is noted and shared across
  the provider.

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HOW TO INTERVIEW INDIVIDUAL

• The Important of the Interview
• The human resources department is responsible for
  screening candidates to verify the information on
  their resumes. Once that is done, qualified
  candidates are generally passed along to the
  manager of the department in which they'll work.
  As a department manager or supervisor, it's
  likely you'll be working very closely with the
  job candidate you hire. That's one reason it's so
  important that you're very thorough in your
  interview. Another reason is that your decision
  is an indication of your ability to manager. A
  good or bad choice will reflect on you. Your new
  hire will interact not only with you, but with
  your boss, your colleagues, your staff, and your
  customers. You'll be responsible for making sure
  the candidate
• can do the job well
• fits in well with other members of your
  department and
• will be able to work well with you
• Preparing For the Interview
• Before you begin interviewing candidates, you
  should prepare some general questions. You will
  also want to take some time to review each job
  candidate's resume or application. This will give
  you the opportunity to prepare questions that are
  relevant to the candidate's work history

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HOW TO INTERVIEW INDIVIDUAL (Con.)

• Conducting Yourself On the Interview
• How you conduct yourself on the interview is as
  important as how the interviewee conducts him or
  herself. You should try to put the interviewee at
  ease since that will help insure that you get
  more honest answers. However, you shouldn't give
  the impression that you are relaxed type of
  manager if you aren't one. Don't forget it's as
  much about the potential employee deciding if
  this place is right for him or her as it is about
  you deciding if the candidate is right for the
  job. If this isn't a good match, from either
  party's perspective, it's best to find out now.
  It's very important to be polite and considerate.
  Keeping the candidate waiting, or taking phone
  calls in the middle of an interview reflects
  poorly on you and your company. This person you
  are interviewing may some day work for you, or,
  in this fast moving world, you may someday work
  for him or her.

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QUESTIONS YOU MAY USE IN INTERVIEW

• Describe the most difficult problem you had to
  solve. What was the situation and what did you
  do? Would you do anything different next time?
• In general, how do you handle conflict?
• Describe a creative solution that you have
  developed to solve a problem.
• What solution are you the proudest of?
• Describe a time when you had to use fact-finding
  skills.
• What has been your most important work-related
  idea?
• Who or what caused you the most trouble in
  implementing your ideas?
• What kinds of problems do you normally experience
  in a day?
• Tell me about a situation that got out of
  control. How did you handle it?

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QUESTIONS YOU MAY USE IN INTERVIEW (CONT.)

• Describe the best/worst co-worker youve ever
  had.
• Tell me about something you achieved as a group
  member.
• How would you define a good working atmosphere?
• Tell me about a time you came up with a new idea.
  Were you able to get it approved? If so, how did
  you go about it?
• Can you think of a time an idea of yours was
  rejected? Tell me about it.
• Tell me about a time an idea or task of yours was
  criticized.
• Tell me about a time you had to work according to
  a policy you disagreed with.
• How do you go about making important decisions?
• Tell me about the last time you made a good
  decision and describe what it was and what the
  results were.
• Tell me about an important decision or judgment
  call youve had to make on the job.
• Describe the worst decision you ever made and how
  you corrected it.

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LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN

• Learning and Development Policy
• through an effective learning and development
  plan consistent with the principles of employment
  equity, it will encourage and assist all
  employees to
• Acquire the knowledge and skills required to
  maximize their performance in their current
  positions
• Acquire new competencies in response to, or in
  preparation for, changing job requirements or new
  job opportunities
• Develop or redirect their careers as individual
  or organizational needs change
• Acquire knowledge and understanding respecting
  issues of fairness, equity, and human rights.
• Learning and development are shared
  responsibilities, and all employees are
  responsible for contributing to this undertaking.
  All decisions to engage in learning must be the
  product of discussion between the employee and
  the employee's supervisor

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LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN (CONT.)

• Learning and Development Action Plan
• Learn
• The employee should outline the steps and
  resources they will use to learn the new
  behavior. Since the Development Action Plan is
  being used to improve upon a strength or to
  develop an opportunity, it is key that the
  employee use resources and tools outside
  themselves. We chooses to use a number of tools
  to learn to improve his communication skills.
  Earlier when we was asked to picture another
  person that embodied the communication skills we
  wished to attain, we was given the idea of
  spending some time peering with this person to
  observe their behaviors in various types of
  interactions. Another resource we chose to use
  was a book that many of our colleagues had
  recommended but we had yet found the time to
  read. In many cases, employee development will
  require a number of tools in the learning phase
  of the plan. Since the Development Action Plan is
  a road map to employee development, like any good
  plan a timeline to accomplish each step should be
  documented. This will give we a deadline to focus
  on and his coach will know when to follow up on
  our progress.
• Practice
• In the next step of the action phase, this is a
  time to focus on applying the skills and
  behaviors without the pressure of being perfect
  but in a way that allows for continuous learning.
  We chooses to conduct some role play sessions
  with both our mentor and our manager, allowing us
  to practice our new skills prior to applying them
  with our team. We also chooses to act as a note
  keeper for our manager's team meeting. This
  activity allowed him the opportunity to ask
  clarifying questions and to ensure that we was on
  the same page with the rest of our peers in the
  meeting regarding what was discussed or
  communicated.

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LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN (CONT.)

• Learning and Development Action Plan
• Feedback
• The last step in the action phase is one of the
  most important feedback. Now that we has had the
  opportunity to learn and practice the new skills
  and behaviors, we needs to receive feedback on
  how we are progressing in making a behavior
  change and overall skill improvement. Without
  this constant feedback loop, we would not know if
  we was truly improving or what areas we still
  needs to focus on. Documenting some avenues for
  feedback up front will establish how the employee
  wishes to receive feedback and will also ensure
  that they are seeking it out. we plans to solicit
  feedback from our mentor and manager during their
  role playing sessions. This will allow him to
  make immediate behavior changes and to repeat the
  practice step. Keep in mind that immediate
  feedback is crucial to consistent behavior
  changes.
• Now that we have discussed how to set up the
  action portion of our Development Action Plan, we
  need to discuss how we will measure success. This
  step is imperative to establish up front so that
  both the coach and the employee have a clear
  target they are working toward. In production
  environments this is often an easy step to
  document, but when the strength or opportunity
  being addressed is more focused on a soft skill,
  coaches and employees can often struggle with
  determining how to measure the improvement. For
  we, we do not have a hard metric to apply as a
  success measure such as dollars collected,
  percent to goal, quality scores, etc. we instead
  must focus on more creative ways to measure our
  behavior changes and skill improvement. Some
  examples of how we could implement a measurement
  would be by conducting a pre and post team survey
  on our communication skills, improved competency
  or review ratings from our manager, or increased
  productivity from our team based on our more
  direct approach in delivering feedback.
• Once the success measures have been identified
  you have a Development Action Plan lan that fully
  outlines the challenge or opportunity, the path
  the employee will take to accomplish their goal,
  and the way in which success will be measured.
  This should provide a clear road map for
  increased performance and employee development.

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TEAM LEARNING PLAN.

• Information on Team Learning Plan (TLP)
• The formal definitions of each competency are in
  the Appendix, but the word or phrases describing
  each competency are basically self-explanatory.
  The first set of competencies is universal or
  foundational competencies. These competencies are
  continually developed and evolving as you
  progress in your career. The universal
  competencies can be divided into three groups
• 1. Personal qualities flexibility, motivation
  to serve the public interest, integrity and
  honesty, personal accountability for actions,
  resilience in facing difficulties, stress
  management, and interest in continual learning.
• 2. Working with people interpersonal skills,
  emotional intelligence (knowing your strengths
  and weaknesses and appreciating other
  individuals capabilities), and conflict
  management.
• 3. Task accomplishment oral communication,
  written communication, presentation and briefing
  skills, general computer literacy, specific
  desktop computer applications, using e-mail
  effectively, and problem solving.
• These competencies are interdependent
  interpersonal skills, oral communication,
  emotional intelligence, and integrity and honesty
  all contribute to working with other people and
  problem solving in team situations. We also have
  grouped them because often training or work
  assignments involve more than one of these
  competencies. Conflict management training might
  also involve interpersonal skills and stress
  management.

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LEARNING OPTIONS

• Learning Solutions can assist you to identify and
  meet the development needs of your team. Your
  learning advisor will work with you to design a
  customised learning solution to support you and
  your team and to assist you in meeting your
  goals. We can tailor programs for teams who
  are
• undergoing restructures or change initiatives
• working to define their vision, values and key
  behaviors
• developing a strategic plan
• seeking to improve communication and engagement
• needing to improve efficiency and responsiveness
  to internal and external clients
• building a new team or introducing a new leader
  to the team
• Our solutions can include
• facilitation of strategic planning sessions
• customised versions of courses run in Learning
  Solutions open program
• programs designed to meet specific needs
  particularly in the area of building effective
  teams
• assistance to establish mentoring programs
• coaching for key staff

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TEAMS PERFORMANCE

• Performance Management for Teams
• Performance Management for Teams is different to
  Team Building (and it is also different to
  Performance Management for individuals).
• There are many different definitions of 'team
  building', but in most people's eyes it refers to
  an activity that helps develop the team in some
  way - it can include a wide range of things, such
  as
• outdoor activities
• offsite workshops
• having a meal out together
• sharing an email list or bulletin board
• meeting in the coffee lounge during work breaks
• etc.
• These can be very useful. But they are often a
  matter of 'hit or miss'. The activities are
  introduced in the belief or hope that they will
  improve the way the group operates - but whether
  they are seen to impact on collective performance
  or not depends more on whether you believe
  'intuitively' that they are good for the team,
  rather than the inherent or demonstrable value of
  the activities.
• That is where Team Performance Management has an
  important role to play.

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TEAMS PERFORMANCE (CONT.)

• Team Performance Management is focused directly
  on the achievement of the team's key business
  objectives. It bridges the gap between the team
  building 'enablers' and business performance
  results. It removes the reliance on 'faith' - the
  need to believe that team building works before
  investing in it - and establishes a direct
  connection between collective behaviours and team
  performance.
• Team Performance Management is predicated on the
  following three principles
• Team Behaviours are different to Individual
  Behaviours. Most competency frameworks include
  "teamwork", but these usually refer to what an
  individual does within a team, not what a team
  does collectively together. E.g. whilst all the
  individuals in a team can behave in trustworthy
  ways, this does not guarantee that the team will
  build trust together - this is also dependent on
  other factors such as the environment they work
  in, or the team processes they use for
  communicating, deciding, rewarding, etc..
• The behaviours that make a team successful vary -
  from team to team and from time to time. Eg the
  profile of behaviours that makes a design team
  successful is different from the profile that
  make a financial audit team successful. And if
  the design team is using a top-down approach, for
  optimal performance, it needs to change its
  behaviours once it gets beyond the outline design
  and starts work on the detailed implementation of
  the ideas.
• Team behaviours can be changed using a team
  performance management process. In essence,
  performance management involves establishing
  behavioural goals, measuring current behaviours
  to identify the gap between the current and
  desired behaviour profile, and then planning,
  implementing and monitoring changes in order to
  close that gap. There are both similarities and
  significant differences between performance
  management processes for individuals and teams.

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TEAMS PERFORMANCE (CONT.)

• The methodology we offer for Team Performance
  Management achieves these principles in the
  following ways
• Behavioural goals are established, closely allied
  to team performance/results, using the "Ideal
  Team Profile Questionnaire". This questionnaire
  can be used as a 360 with senior managers, staff,
  customers and peer groups, to identify what
  behaviours will make the team most successful.
• The current behaviors are established using the
  "Management Team Roles - indicator".
• Target and current behaviours can then be
  compared in a behavioural gap analysis.
• The insight gained from the gap analysis can be
  used to take action in order to close that gap.
  By shifting behaviors closer to those required
  for optimum success, team performance will
  improve.
• In summary, the key difference between
  traditional team building and team performance
  management is that the former engages in
  activities in the belief that they will
  indirectly lead to improvements in team
  performance (sometimes they do, sometimes they
  don't). Team Performance Management, however,
  identifies the team behaviours that will lead
  directly to business success, and then uses a
  process to change the behaviours accordingly.

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TRAINING AND OTHER DEVELOPMENT

• There are a couple of secrets about what
  employees want from training and development
  opportunities, however. Plus, training and
  development opportunities are not just found in
  external training classes and seminars. These
  ideas emphasize what employees want in training
  and development opportunities. They also
  articulate your opportunity to create devoted,
  growing employees who will benefit both your
  business and themselves through your training and
  development opportunities.
• Training and Development Options Job Content and
  Responsibilities
• You can impact training and development
  significantly through the responsibilities in an
  employees current job.
• Training and Development Options Job Content and
  Responsibilities

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TRAINING AND OTHER DEVELOPMENT (CONT.)

• You can impact training and development
  significantly through the responsibilities in an
  employees current job.
• Expand the job to include new, higher level
  responsibilities.
• Reassign responsibilities that the employee
  does not like or that are routine.
• Provide more authority for the employee to
  self-manage and make decisions.
• Invite the employee to contribute to more
  important, department or company-wide decisions
  and planning.
• Provide more access to important and
  desirable meetings.
• Provide more information by including the
  employee on specific mailing lists, in company
  briefings, and in your confidence.
• Provide more opportunity to establish goals,
  priorities, and measurements.
• Assign reporting staff members to his or her
  leadership or supervision.
• Assign the employee to head up projects or
  teams.
• Enable the employee to spend more time with
  his or her boss.
• Provide the opportunity for the employee to
  cross-train in other roles and responsibilities.

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TRAINING AND OTHER DEVELOPMENT (CONT.)

• Training and Development Options Internal
  Training and Development
• Employees appreciate the opportunity to develop
  their knowledge and skills without ever leaving
  work or the workplace. Internal training and
  development brings a special plus. Examples,
  terminology, and opportunities reflect the
  culture, environment, and needs of your
  workplace.
• Enable the employee to attend an internally
  offered training session. This session can be
  offered by a coworker in an area of their
  expertise or by an outside presenter or trainer.
• Ask the employee to train other employees with
  the information learned at a seminar or training
  session. Offer the time at a department meeting
  or lunch to discuss the information or present
  the information learned to others. (Make this an
  expectation when employees attend external
  training and conferences.)
• Perform all of the activities listed before,
  during and after a training session to ensure
  that the learning is transferred to the
  employees job.
• Purchase business books for the employee. Sponsor
  an employee book club during which employees
  discuss a current book and apply its concepts to
  your company.
• Offer commonly-needed training and information on
  an Intranet, an internal company website.

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TRAINING AND OTHER DEVELOPMENT (CONT.)

• Provide training by either knowledgeable
  employees or an outside expert in a brown bag
  lunch format. Employees eat lunch and gain
  knowledge about a valuable topic. (Some ideas
  include investing in a 401(k), how to vary and
  balance investments, tips for public speaking,
  how to get along with the boss, and updates on
  new products that make work easier. These
  opportunities are unlimited survey employees to
  pinpoint interests.)
• The developers and other interested employees at
  a client company recently put on a day long
  conference with lunch and all of the trappings of
  an external conference at a local conference
  center. Attended by interested employees, the
  conference sessions were almost all taught by
  internal staff on topics of interest to their
  internal audience. Picture a "real" day long
  conference and you'll see the opportunity.
  Employees were pumped up beyond belief they
  learned and enjoyed the day and gained new
  respect for the knowledge and skills of their
  coworkers.

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TRAINING AND OTHER DEVELOPMENT (CONT.)

• Training and Development Options External
  Training and Development
• Especially to develop new skills and ideas,
  employee attendance at external training is a
  must. Attaining degrees and university attendance
  enhance the knowledge and capabilities of your
  staff while broadening their experience with
  diverse people and ideas.
• Enable the employee to attend an external
  seminar, conference, speaker, or training event.
• Perform all of the activities listed before,
  during and after a training session to ensure
  that the learning is transferred to the
  employees job.
• Pay for the employee to take online classes and
  identify low or no cost online (and offline)
  training.
• Pay for memberships in external professional
  associations with the understanding that
  employees will attend meetings, read the
  journals, and so forth and regularly update
  coworkers.
• Provide a flexible schedule so the employee can
  take time to attend university, college, or other
  formal educational sessions.
• Provide tuition assistance to encourage the
  employee's pursuit of additional education.

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TRAINING AND OTHER DEVELOPMENT (CONT.)

• Training and Development Secrets
• These are key factors in multiplying the value of
  the training and development you provide.
• Allow employees to pursue training and
  development in directions they choose, not just
  in company-assigned and needed directions.
• Have your company support learning, in general,
  and not just in support of knowledge needed for
  the employees current or next anticipated job.
  Recognize that the key factor is keeping the
  employee interested, attending, and engaged.
• The development of a life-long engaged learner is
  a positive factor for your organization no matter
  how long the employee chooses to stay in your
  employ. Use these training and development
  activities to ensure that you optimize the
  employee's motivation and potential retention.

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MONITORING AND EVALUATION

• Monitoring
• Monitoring is about collecting information that
  will help you answer questions about your
  project. It is important that this information is
  collected in a planned, organised and routine
  way. You can use this information to report on
  your project and to help you evaluate.
• All organisations keep records and notes, and
  discuss what they are doing. This simple checking
  becomes monitoring when information is collected
  routinely and systematically against a plan. The
  information might be about activities or
  services, your users, or about outside factors
  affecting your organisation or project.
• Monitoring information is collected at specific
  times daily, monthly or quarterly.
• Here are some basic points for successful
  monitoring
• build simple, user-friendly monitoring systems
  into everyday activities, collecting data at the
  most natural point
• get commitment from those collecting the
  information, by explaining why they are doing it
• make sure that everyone responsible for
  monitoring has clear and consistent guidelines
• make sure that monitoring records are completed
  fully and accurately people may not regard it
  as a high-priority activity
• give people collecting the information feedback
  on the results of their monitoring, and how it is
  being used to make the organisation more
  effective
• check that the project is not collecting the same
  piece of information more than once.

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MONITORING AND EVALUATION (CONT.)

• Get good advice on how your database can best
  serve your information needs. Talk to another
  project with a good management information system
  and to a database expert, if possible. Think
  about the links you want to create between
  different types of information. For example, you
  may want to be able to link user profile data
  with attendance at different activities.
• It is important to be familiar with the Data
  Protection Act. Make sure data is used for its
  intended purpose. If personal information is kept
  about individual service users, make sure that
  they know exactly what the evaluation is for,
  what data exists, that they can have access to it
  to check its accuracy, and that the project will
  preserve their confidentiality.

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MONITORING AND EVALUATION (CONT.)

• Evaluation
• Evaluation is about using monitoring and other
  information you collect to make judgements about
  your project. It is also about using the
  information to make changes and improvements.
• Your monitoring information is likely to contain
• profile information on your users
• basic project record keeping, such as the minutes
  of meetings and case records
• statistical information on take-up of services
• feedback sheets from training courses and
  workshops
• diaries and other records of events
• complaints and compliments from users.
• When you evaluate, you will use this information,
  but often you will need to carry out additional
  data gathering. Your monitoring information will
  probably suggest further questions that need an
  answer. You need to think clearly about where the
  focus of the evaluation will be and who and where
  you want to obtain information from. Make sure
  you set enough time aside for this additional
  information gathering. Questionnaires take time
  to develop, and should be tested with a small
  sample from your target group to see if they will
  capture the information you want. Interviews take
  time to organise and even longer to write up and
  analyse.
• Evaluation is a set of interlinked activities.
  Each of these is an important part of the overall
  process and needs adequate time built in to
  protect the quality of the evaluation.

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MONITORING AND EVALUATION (CONT.)

• WHY DO MONITORING AND EVALUATION?
• Monitoring and evaluation not only measure how
  well you are doing, but also help you to be more
  effective.
• Providing information to funders and other
  stakeholders
• Monitoring and evaluation will provide useful
  information for funders about the level of
  activities and benefits for your users. You will
  be able to give examples of what has worked well,
  and what your users most value. You will also be
  in a better position to make a good case to
  funders for continuing or developing activities.
  You can also use your evaluation findings for
  publicity, for lobbying or campaigning, for
  advocacy and to highlight gaps in services.
• Learning from evaluation
• Sharing the information within your project will
  help you to become a learning organization.
  Management can improve its decision-making, and
  staff and volunteers will appreciate the value of
  the work that they do and understand how they can
  make further improvements. Once the immediate
  reporting back has taken place, make sure that
  dates are set for action so that impetus and
  enthusiasm are not lost.

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MONITORING AND EVALUATION (CONT.)

• Using evaluation for organisational planning and
  management
• The evaluation can provide decision-makers with
  knowledge and information to make informed
  choices. Your evaluation should show which parts
  of the project are working, for what people and
  in what circumstances, and provide a warning if
  something is going wrong. These are key findings
  and you need to decide what action to take. Is
  extra funding needed? Are new activities
  required? Do staff need extra training or skills?
• The evaluation will also provide information for
  your next year plan. It will help you to review
  your objectives. Are your services or activities
  the right ones to achieve the intended change or
  benefits? If the project has brought about some
  unexpected results, how will you take those into
  account in future planning? You may need to
  gather more information about the outside world,
  for example local strategies and other service
  provision, before making decisions about changing
  services.

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MONITORING AND EVALUATION (CONT.)

• The evaluation may give you clearer information
  about who is using your services, about your
  members, or who you are reaching with your
  information or publicity. This will help you to
  think more carefully about who you are not
  reaching. If the findings point out areas where
  need is greatest or least served, you may need to
  consider redefining your target group. You may
  need to carry out more publicity or establish new
  contacts and networks. It may be that you need to
  follow up your evaluation with a more in-depth
  needs analysis.
• Your evaluation will also allow you to review
  your targets for outputs and outcomes. If you
  have not met certain targets, or if you have
  exceeded them, then you should be able to set
  this against what you now know about the capacity
  of the project and the performance of other
  agencies. Your evidence should be strong enough
  to show if there were good reasons for a lower
  than expected performance, whether targets were
  set realistically and whether you should adjust
  them.
• Use the lessons learnt about what you could do
  better, or differently, in your operational
  planning. Do you need to
• change the way the project is managed?
• reallocate resources?
• expand or change direction?
• Staff and volunteers are under pressure in their
  daily work routines and will need motivation to
  use evaluation findings and make changes. Work
  towards changing the culture of the organisation,
  so that people are receptive to new ideas and
  challenging feedback.

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MONITORING AND EVALUATION (CONT.)

• Using evaluation to set service delivery
  standards
• Evaluation should give you some important
  information about how you deliver your services
  to users, how this affects user satisfaction and
  how service delivery affects the outcomes for
  users. For example, user satisfaction and trainer
  observations should allow you to set standards
  for your training.  These could be about such
  things as the maximum number of participants, the
  quality of training materials or accessibility
  for disabled people.
• Reviewing key resources
• Your evaluation should not just look at the
  results of your activities, but should relate
  these to the projects inputs. How have
  activities been affected by the projects
  management structure, its staffing or funding
  levels? Are the projects physical facilities
  unsuitable or is the project transport
  inadequate? Do you need improved information
  technology to support the project?
• Using evaluation for policy change
• Evaluation can play a key role in highlighting
  the effect that wider social structures and
  policies have on your own work and on the lives
  of the people you work with.
• Policy is influenced by a combination of factors,
  including the assumptions, personal ideology and
  interests of the policy-makers. Although the
  processes involved in policy-making are complex,
  evaluation can be designed not only to improve
  practice, but also to improve and change policies
  at many levels.
• When you report on your evaluation, think about
  who your audience is. If you intend to publish
  the evaluation, this clarity about your audience
  is essential. Communicate the lessons you have
  learnt directly and simply. Be direct about what
  types of policies might be effective, based on
  findings. Communicate what you know to community
  members and project users. This can gain you
  allies to help you influence policy-makers.

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MONITORING AND EVALUATION (CONT.)

• Using evaluation for strategic planning
• There is an important role for evaluation in
  strategic as well as operational planning. The
  strategic planning process starts when you have
  analysed monitoring and evaluation data.
• Steps in strategic planning
• Monitoring and evaluation data can provide
  valuable information for analysis of
  organisational strengths, weaknesses,
  opportunities and threats.
• Effective monitoring and evaluation will help
  your organisation to provide services of the
  highest possible quality, and embody the highest
  standards of integrity, credibility and
  accountability. It will make sure that you are
  working with the greatest possible effectiveness
  and efficiency, that you provide value for money
  and, above all, that the work you do will make a
  real difference.

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PLANNING FOR MONITORING AND EVALUATION

• Monitoring and evaluation plans should be created
  after the planning phase and before the design
  phase of a program or intervention.  The plan
  should include information on how the program or
  intervention will be examined and assessed. 
  Generally, the plan should outline
• the underlying assumptions on which the
  achievement of program goals depend
• the anticipated relationships between activities,
  outputs, and outcomes (the framework)
• well-defined conceptual measures and definitions,
  along with baseline data
• the monitoring schedule
• a list of data sources to be used
• cost estimates for the monitoring and evaluation
  activities
• a list of the partnerships and collaborations
  that will help achieve the desired results and
• a plan for the dissemination and utilization of
  the information gained.
• When should evaluations be conducted?
• Evaluations should be conducted at the beginning
  and end of an intervention process. They should
  include collection of baseline data for
  comparison purposes.
• Evaluations are usually conducted to answer key
  questions on the programmes performance and
  carried out when the staff or the donor wants to
  make key decisions around the programme such as
  how to improve the programme, which activities to
  continue or discontinue and whether or not to
  scale up the programme.

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About Information What we want to know?

• What we want to know is linked to what we think
  is important. In development work, what we think
  is important is linked to our values.
• Most work in civil society organisations is
  underpinned by a value framework. It is this
  framework that determines the standards of
  acceptability in the work we do. The central
  values on which most development work is built
  are
• Serving the disadvantaged
• Empowering the disadvantaged
• Changing society, not just helping individuals
• Sustainability
• Efficient use of resources.
• So, the first thing we need to know is what we
  are doing and how we are doing it meeting the
  requirements of these values? In order to answer
  this question, our monitoring and evaluation
  system must give us information about

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WHAT DO WE WANT TO KNOW? (CONT.)

• Who is benefiting from what we do? How much are
  they benefiting?
• Are beneficiaries passive recipients or does the
  process enable them to have some control over
  their lives?
• Are there lessons in what we are doing that have
  a broader impact than just what is happening on
  our project?
• Can what we are doing be sustained in some way
  for the long-term, or will the impact of our work
  cease when we leave?
• Are we getting optimum outputs for the least
  possible amount of inputs?
• Different Kinds of Information Quantitative and
  Qualitative
• Information used in monitoring and evaluation can
  be classified as
• Quantitative or
• Qualitative.

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DIFFERENT KINDS OF INFORMATION

• Qualitative measurement tells you how people feel
  about a situation or about how things are done or
  how people behave. So, for example, although you
  might discover that 50 of the teachers in a
  school are unhappy about the assessment criteria
  used, this is still qualitative information, not
  quantitative information. You get qualitative
  information by asking, observing, interpreting.
• Some people find quantitative information
  comforting it seems solid and reliable and
  objective. They find qualitative information
  unconvincing and subjective. It is a mistake to
  say that quantitative information speaks for
  itself. It requires just as much interpretation
  in order to make it meaningful as does
  qualitative information. It may be a fact that
  enrolment of girls at schools in some developing
  countries is dropping counting can tell us
  that, but it tells us nothing about why this drop
  is taking place. In order to know that, you would
  need to go out and ask questions to get
  qualitative information. Choice of indicators is
  also subjective, whether you use quantitative or
  qualitative methods to do the actual measuring.
  Researchers choose to measure school enrolment
  figures for girls because they believe that this
  tells them something about how women in a society
  are treated or viewed.

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HOW WILL WE GET INFORMATION?

• The monitoring and evaluation process requires a
  combination of quantitative and qualitative
  information in order to be comprehensive. For
  example, we need to know what the school
  enrolment figures for girls are, as well as why
  parents do or do not send their children to
  school. Perhaps enrolment figures are higher for
  boys than for girls because a particular
  community sees schooling as a luxury and prefers
  to train boys to do traditional and practical
  tasks such taking care of animals. In this case,
  the higher enrolment of girls does not
  necessarily indicate higher regard for girls.
• HOW WILL WE GET INFORMATION?
• This is dealt with in some detail in the toolkit
  on action planning, in the section on monitoring,
  collecting information as you go along. Your
  methods for information collecting need to be
  built into your action planning. You should be
  aiming to have a steady stream of information
  flowing into the project or organisation about
  the work and how it is done, without overloading
  anyone. The information you collect must mean
  something dont collect information to keep
  busy, only do it to find out what you want to
  know, and then make sure that you store the
  information in such a way that it is easy to
  access.

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HOW WILL WE GET INFORMATION? (CONT.)

• Usually you can use the reports, minutes,
  attendance registers, financial statements that
  are part of your work anyway as a source of
  monitoring and evaluation information.
• However, sometimes you need to use special tools
  that are simple but useful to add to the basic
  information collected in the natural course of
  your work. Some of the more common ones are
• Case studies
• Recorded observation
• Recording and analysis of important incidents
  (called critical incident analysis)
• Structured questionnaires
• One-on-one interviews
• Focus groups
• Sample surveys
• Systematic review of relevant official
  statistics.

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WHO SHOULD BE INVOLVED?

• Almost everyone in the organisation or project
  will be involved in some way in collecting
  information that can be used in monitoring and
  evaluation. This includes
• The administrator who takes minutes at a meeting
  or prepares and circulates the attendance
  register
• The fieldworkers who writes reports on visits to
  the field
• The bookkeeper who records income and
  expenditure.
• In order to maximise their efforts, the project
  or organisation needs to
• Prepare reporting formats that include
  measurement, either quantitative or qualitative,
  of important indicators. For example, if you want
  to know about community participation in
  activities, or womens participation
  specifically, structure the fieldworkers
  reporting format so that s/he has to comment on
  this, backing up observations with facts.
• Prepare recording formats that include
  measurement, either quantitative or qualitative,
  of important indicators. For example, if you want
  to know how many men and how many women attended
  a meeting, include a gender column on your
  attendance list.

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WHO SHOULD BE INVOLVED? (CONT.)

• Record information in such a way that it is
  possible to work out what you need to know. For
  example, if you need to know whether a project is
  sustainable financially, and which elements of it
  cost the most, then make sure that your
  bookkeeping records reflect the relevant
  information.
• It is a useful principle to look at every
  activity and say What do we need to know about
  this activity, both process (how it is being
  done) and product (what it is meant to achieve),
  and what is the easiest way to find it out and
  record it as we go along?
• Designing a monitoring and/or evaluation process
• As there are differences between the design of a
  monitoring system and that of an evaluation
  process, we deal with them separately here.
• Under monitoring we look at the process an
  organisation could go through to design a
  monitoring system.
• Under evaluation we look at Purpose, Key
  evaluation questions and Methodology.