Try This Archives - Page 3 of 9 - Nicole Clark Consulting

19 Jan, 2022

Try This: Check In on Your Strategic Plan

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2022-01-19T16:40:42-05:00January 19th, 2022|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Strategic Planning, Try This|0 Comments

*Try this out and let me know how it goes for you.*

On the road to becoming more data driven, and making sense of stakeholder data, organizations use the data to inform their strategic planning process.

A strategic plan, in short, is a written document that outlines an organization’s mission, vision, the context the plan is being developed in, strategic goals and steps for achieving them over a designated period. .

Like logic models, theories of change and similar documents, the process for developing a strategic plan can be tedious. As such, there’s more focus on getting the document “just right” as less on how to use the document to guide your work.

When you don’t have a plan for checking in on your strategic plan, you run the risk of it sitting on the shelf, collecting dust next to all the evaluation reports that don’t get read.

In all seriousness, a strategic plan is a living document. Each strategic goal has a desired outcome. As we know, life happens, and where we thought we would be may not be where we end up, based on a variety of circumstances. While your strategic plans are set in place, the path for achieving your goals and have shifted since the plan’s implementation. With this understanding, let’s explore how to use your strategic plan as an accountability tool.

This activity is ideal for:

Anyone responsible for leading a strategic planning process
Anyone interested in participating in the strategic planning process

Here’s what you need:

Your organization’s strategic plan
Whatever setup you use to capture your process (laptop, pen and paper, whiteboard, etc.) but make sure it’s kept in a place that you can refer back to

The steps:

(more…)

27 Oct, 2021

Try This: Prioritizing Data Findings

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-10-27T14:58:54-04:00October 27th, 2021|Categories: Research & Evaluation|Tags: Data Sense-Making, Stakeholders, Try This|0 Comments

On the road to becoming grassroots and data driven, it’s tempting to start collecting data as soon as possible to determine your impact.

From funders and program participants to community leaders and policy makers, data you’ve gleaned from focus groups, informant interviews, and surveys juggle voices and perspectives of many stakeholders.

But once you have all this data, what do you do with it? And how do you prioritize these voices?

Here are 3 ways (from easy-to-do to more time-consuming) to prioritize your data findings.

This activity is ideal for:

Anyone responsible for leading data sense making processes
Anyone interested in participating in data sense making processes
Anyone interested in applying evaluative thinking into their work

Here’s what you need:

Whatever setup you use to capture your ideas (laptop, pen and paper, whiteboard, etc.) but make sure it’s kept in a place that you can refer back to

The steps:

(more…)

21 Jul, 2021

Try This: The RFP “YES” Checklist

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T21:11:52-04:00July 21st, 2021|Categories: Consulting|Tags: consulting, Equity, Try This|0 Comments

*Try this out and let me know how it goes.*

Last week, I posed 7 questions to consider before sending out a Request for Proposals (RFP) to evaluate whether your organization’s process for securing consultants is equitable.

Also occurring last week, I responded to a RFP. There were several reasons why I responded (knowing the person who sent it, interest in working with the organization, having the skillset needed, the project focus, etc.). However, I responded because this RFP:

Was clear, concise, and outlined everything I needed to know
Included the statement: “In line with our focus on equity and evaluation, we aim to reduce the burden on interested applicants.”
Limited the proposal to 5-7 pages
Was explicit in requesting proposals from independent consultants as well as partners
Included in the proposal requirements: “A brief work plan of the steps you propose, which we recognize are subject to change”
Lists the qualifications they’re looking for, but also stated they understood that no applicant or proposal will meet all qualifications
Specified that the proposal submission is the first step in a longer conversation with their time, with a small number of applicants being asked to have a brief phone call with the team
Didn’t request additional documents (most likely because they knew they would’t read through them)
The project sounds really interesting

What’s most impressive is that this RFP came from a philanthropic organization. When I emailed my proposal, I complimented the staff on how equitable their RFP was. The only thing the RFP didn’t disclose was the budget (and last week’s post shares why disclosing it is important.)

Regardless of the selection outcome, I hope this is the start of organizations developing more RFP equitable practices.

What makes you say “YES!” to responding to a Request for Proposals (RFP)?

Do you have a standard list of requirements? Are they consistent across RFPs, or do you make considerations based on situational factors?

Let’s create your RFP “YES!” checklist.

This activity is ideal for:

Anyone wanting a proactive approach to considering whether to submit a response to a Request for Proposals (RFPs).
Anyone responsible for creating RFPs

Here’s what you need:

Whatever setup you use to capture your ideas (laptop, pen and paper, whiteboard, etc.) but make sure it’s kept in a place that you can refer back to

The steps:

(more…)

21 Oct, 2020

Try This: A Simple Way to Get Program Feedback

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T21:00:38-04:00October 21st, 2020|Categories: Research & Evaluation|Tags: program design, program evaluation, Try This|0 Comments

I enjoy coming up with things on the fly, and today’s Try This is one of those moments.

I was hired by a client organization earlier on in my consulting business to conduct several focus groups for their program participants, all of whom were young high school girls attending a 6-week summer program.

During the first two focus groups, one question I asked was, “What would you change about this program?”

Interestingly, the participants enjoyed the program so much that they didn’t have any ideas on how they could improve the program.

When I got to the last two focus groups, I decided to change the question.

Before I share how I changed the question, let’s make one thing clear: It’s very possible your program participants really do enjoy your program, and there’s a lot of information to glean from this. But this client organization specifically wanted feedback on how to evolve the program and they noticed that, outside of exclaiming they enjoy the program, participants didn’t give in prior feedback on what they enjoyed and what they’d like to see based on previous evaluations.

In response to my client’s request, I shifted the question.

This activity is ideal for:

Anyone responsible for developing, running and evaluating programs and services
Anyone interested in applying evaluative thinking

Here’s what you need:

Whatever setup you use for focus groups (though this can also be created as a survey, key informant interview, or as a World Cafe)

The steps:

(more…)

17 Jun, 2020

Try This: Pivot Your Programs & Services

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T20:51:11-04:00June 17th, 2020|Categories: Workshop, Program, & Curriculum Design|Tags: Human Centered Design, program design, Try This|0 Comments

Try this activity and let me know how it goes.

As the world began to shelter in place to flatten the curve of the coronavirus pandemic, I did what many social workers do: I checked in on my clients to make sure they were ok.

With the exception of one client, all of my client organizations turned their initial attention to orienting their staff to the world of working from home. So, naturally, most of their time was taken up with that.

My one client that was already working remotely before the shelter in place order didn’t have this issue. What they did experience, however, was a drastic shift in their programming.

To use the terminology we’ve been hearing on the news, this client (like all of my clients) had to figure out what was “essential” and what wasn’t in terms of how implementing their programs impacted staff capacity to support their program participants, many who support communities heavily impacted by COVID-19.

Putting on my social worker hat, we discussed how this organization makes decisions under normal circumstances given the work they do (abortion access and advocacy). What’s normal for them is operating with the understanding that anything (from policy introductions that can restrict abortion access, to cyberattacks and general anti-abortion rhetoric) can occur to undermine how they support their members.

So, in many ways, they’re used to being nimble. Trying to do this work during a pandemic is another experience entirely.

We talked about how this nimbleness can be applied to how they’re thinking about their programs under the pandemic. One process we’ve implemented over a year ago was the creation of an evaluation working group consisting of staff members from most of their departments who have a willingness and desire to add more intentionality in their program development, data gathering, and sense-making via evaluation. One first meeting as a group grounded the groups’ expectations as well as introduced the process of evaluative thinking.

Given that this client’s focus with me as been on evaluation capacity building, not much changed on my end in terms of still being able to engage staff, but as with all evaluations, I had to pivot the project to address this client’s emerging need: supporting their member base. The client informed me that they had to make quick decisions on which programs can still operate. If their programming could no longer operate as intended, 1) what can they learn from this, 2) how can they pivot programs deem essential to their work, 3) what qualifies a program as “non-essential”, and 4) how can they make a “non-essential” program more “essential” in the future?

I once had a supervisor that would tell staff, “Your Plan B should be as strong as your Plan A.”

I thought he was wrong. If your Plan A is strong enough, there would be no need for a Plan B.

As I move through the pandemic along with my clients, I see that my former supervisor and I were both correct. Your Plan B should be just as strong as your Plan A.

In response to my client’s needs, I created an evaluative thinking activity.

This activity is ideal for:

Anyone responsible for developing, running, and evaluating programs and services
Anyone interested in applying evaluative thinking

Try This: Check In on Your Strategic Plan

Try This: Prioritizing Data Findings

Try This: The RFP “YES” Checklist

Try This: A Simple Way to Get Program Feedback

Try This: Pivot Your Programs & Services

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