How “Stand-by” Evaluators Enhance Organizational Learning and Adaptability

Organizations are being asked to adapt faster than ever—yet many still rely on evaluation models built for stability, not change. Last fall, CCHE’s Maggie Jones and Elena Kuo participated in a panel presentation at American Evaluation Association’s annual conference with Maryam Khojasteh and Jess Renger, colleagues from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Kaiser Permanente’s National Office of Community & Social Health, on how CCHE’s role as a “stand-by” evaluator has enhanced organizational learning and adaptability within their organizations.

Our lessons learned—now featured in a recent AEA365 blog post—highlights the role of stand-by evaluators and the benefits of these types of relationships. Stand-by evaluators have an open and flexible evaluation contract to support emergent priorities related to evaluation, measurement, planning/design, and organizational learning. The work may entail a variety of projects including cross-program synthesis, learning strategy, program planning, evaluation planning, and evaluation projects. The table below shows some ways in which emergent evaluation differs from traditional evaluation partnerships.

Lessons learned highlight how flexible evaluation partnerships can:

• Build stronger communication and trust across teams
• Increase transparency around decision-making
• Expand evaluation capacity without overburdening staff
• Create space to test, iterate, and refine new ideas
• Help organizations learn across programs rather than in silos