One of the latest areas of focus and concern among both profit and not-for-proftit organizations is the demonstration of ROI, return-on-investment. How do you measure the impact or degree of success of various initiatives in leadership development or change, for example, and is the cost/benefit ratio justifiable? How can you become more accountable to your stakeholders and more fiscally responsible within your organization? How do you engender a cycle of demonstrated success versus “feel good” results? The fundamental purpose of outcome-based evaluation is to demonstrate that the desired outcome was reached within a reasonable scope of time, effort and cost.
Outcome-based evaluation, or results-focused evaluation, is tailored to an organization’s specific initiatives and organizational goals. It measures the changes in knowledge, skills, attitudes, behaviors and results, and assesses the aggregate of these outcomes in realtion to the initiative’s stated purpose in the context of the organization’s current strategy and overall mission.
Triaxia Partners, Inc. has successfully led the design of several such measurement systems, in both large and small organizations, some focused narrowly on a specific initiative, and others focused broadly on multiple, large scale investments. Our goals are four-fold:
- Design customized methodology that allows you to accurately track short and long-term impact (versus activity) that is sustainable, adaptable and transferable
- Provide detailed implementation know-how that allows for simplicity in communication, internal consistency in data-gathering, and user-friendly, non-burdensome compliance
- Demonstrate seamless integration with strategy, program design and budget processes that supports wise, informed decision-making and process improvement
- Practically assist the organization in making an outcome measurement mindset a part of daily operations
Our measurement interventions are based on a logic model, that builds deductively from desired outcome. What are the inputs/resources needed- to support the appropriate activities that lead in turn to the anticipated measurable outputs/changes?