My experience over the last years working with the Most Significant Change Evaluation and Monitoring Framework (MSC) has been insightful, interesting and rewarding. Having just wrapped up a two-year stint working with Intercordia Canada to imagine, test and implement MSC in the context of their international programs, I'm now settling in for a little reflection on the process. What I see as a primary challenge of implementing MSC is the tension between story collection for evaluation purposes and story collection for marketing purposes.
As described in an earlier post
where I thoroughly lay out the implementation of MSC with Intercordia,
the framework is extremely rich and versatile. The heart of MSC is the
collection of stories of change at the ground level, followed by
various rounds of review and story selection by identified
stakeholders. What happens in this process is that many important and
insightful stories find their way into the hands of those responsible
for either procuring program funding or funding programs. Anyone with
a basic understanding of program marketing or public relations would
jump at the chance to have authentic tales of positive program
impact/change to share with the funding community and the broader
community of supporters and stakeholders. It's natural. I get it.
And, I'm sure you can make a case for it. However, I will not be the
one making that particular case.
The purpose of an evaluation/monitoring framework like MSC is to get to the heart of what's happening on the ground. How do our programs and good intentions play out in the lives of real folks? With these people as the focus of the work, I've come to believe that the stories submitted for evaluation and monitoring should not be used for marketing. Not only is there the potential for the MSC process and story selection to include bias in favor of choosing stories that "sell," but there is also the real possibility of over-exploiting the genuine participation and intention of the story teller. (I should mention that I participate in a global forum on the implementation of MSC in a whole slew of contexts. This question is the most prevalent concern of those implementing the framework - having experienced the tension first-hand, I completely understand why.)
Sure, if in the process of collecting and reviewing MSC stories you run across a person who tells their story in a way that fits perfectly with the marketing goals of the organization, it makes sense on a case-by-case basis to request a separate interview for these purposes. The real key is to keep the intention of evaluation/monitoring and the intention of marketing separate so your evaluation results are as authentic and unbiased as possible.
If you're interested in discussing my experiences in implementing MSC, please feel free to contact me. I really enjoy this conversation.
The purpose of an evaluation/monitoring framework like MSC is to get to the heart of what's happening on the ground. How do our programs and good intentions play out in the lives of real folks? With these people as the focus of the work, I've come to believe that the stories submitted for evaluation and monitoring should not be used for marketing. Not only is there the potential for the MSC process and story selection to include bias in favor of choosing stories that "sell," but there is also the real possibility of over-exploiting the genuine participation and intention of the story teller. (I should mention that I participate in a global forum on the implementation of MSC in a whole slew of contexts. This question is the most prevalent concern of those implementing the framework - having experienced the tension first-hand, I completely understand why.)
Sure, if in the process of collecting and reviewing MSC stories you run across a person who tells their story in a way that fits perfectly with the marketing goals of the organization, it makes sense on a case-by-case basis to request a separate interview for these purposes. The real key is to keep the intention of evaluation/monitoring and the intention of marketing separate so your evaluation results are as authentic and unbiased as possible.
If you're interested in discussing my experiences in implementing MSC, please feel free to contact me. I really enjoy this conversation.
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