Try This Archives - Page 7 of 11 - Nicole Clark Consulting

16 May, 2019

Try This: Take a Bird’s Eye View

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T20:36:01-04:00May 16th, 2019|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Capacity Building, Strategic Planning, Try This|0 Comments

There are various factors that impact your program.

If you’re a nonprofit or social service agency, chances are you run several programs and services.

These programs and services don’t exist in a vacuum. In fact, a variety of factors make up a complex system in which your program or service operates within, including budgets and available funding, policies (organizational as well as federal/state/local), organizational structure, staff leadership capacity, participant perceptions, internal and external stakeholders, and more.

We often lose sight of these and we can be in the thick of it, doing what we can to keep the program afloat. However, when we take a bird’s eye view, we see the context that programs and services operate under.

This activity is ideal for:

Staff responsible for developing and overseeing the implementation of programs, services, and strategies

Here’s what you need:

Sheets of paper or an erasable whiteboard
Writing utensils (pens, pencils, markers, or dry erase markers)

The steps:

Take your preferred writing utensil and either a sheet of paper or erasable whiteboard. Draw a large circle, and a smaller circle in the middle. Write the name of your program or service in the middle, like this:

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19 Apr, 2019

Try This: Put the Pieces Together

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T20:31:30-04:00April 19th, 2019|Categories: Program, Service, & Campaign Design|Tags: Capacity Building, program design, Try This|0 Comments

Get clear on your program’s purpose and everyone’s role.

During one of my first major evaluations, I asked the client if I could view the program’s curriculum. As I looked through it, I asked how often the curriculum is revised based on participant feedback.

The program had been around for some time, and while the client was consistent with evaluating the program and drawing out the positive feedback to share with funders, they hadn’t used the feedback to revise the actual program.

During another site visit for this program, I noticed that staff were familiar with certain aspects of the program, but not the program in its entirety, or who was responsible for what. Understandable when you’re dealing with newer versus more seasoned staff. Also, some staff were confused about the purpose of some activities and when each activity was supposed to take place.

I’ve always been of the mindset that, in order to create or revise data collection and analysis tools and processes, you need to have a general sense of program goals and how the program is supposed to function. This is important as staff will come and go. Also, there should be a process built in for revising the program so that it’s meeting the emerging needs of participants.

Similar to putting together a puzzle, it can be daunting to look at the multiple components of a program. Instead of working on the entire puzzle at once, focus on one section at a time so that it all comes together.

This activity is ideal for:

Staff responsible for developing and overseeing the implementation of programs, services, and strategies

Here’s what you need:

Your program’s logic model
Your program curriculum
Bonus: Your most recent program data that gives you insight about the program (compiled and synthesized data)

The process:

Typically with my Try This exercises, I lay out all the steps. For this exercise, I’m going to leave that up to you.

To frame it, there are three parts to this process. First, review your program’s goals and objectives. Second, look at your staff roles to assess 1) whether everyone currently connected to the program is being utilized in ways that align with the programs and objectives, 2) if those involved are utilizing their expertise, and 3) who is responsible for what. Third, review the program’s activities to assess if these activities currently align with the goals and objectives.

(Also, it should go without saying that “program” can also mean service, workshop, training, initiative, strategy, and so forth).

Here are some guiding questions (and feel free to add more):

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22 Mar, 2019

Try This: I Like, I Wish, I Wonder

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T20:27:39-04:00March 22nd, 2019|Categories: Program, Service, & Campaign Design|Tags: Facilitation, Try This, Workshops|0 Comments

This this activity out and let me know how it goes for you.

I’ve used “I Like, I Wish, I Wonder” as a way to get quick feedback from my program and workshop participants.

Adapted from the Stanford Design School’s “I Like, I Wish, How to” process, I first used “I Like, I Wish, I Wonder” during an evaluation project with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s sexual and reproductive justice campaign. The campaign’s Community Engagement Group facilitated local gatherings in the five boroughs to gather insights into how various demographics were advancing Reproductive Justice in their communities.

Due to the gatherings being large in scope and attendance, we 1) needed something quick for the participants to fill out before leaving, and 2) wanted to develop an easy-to-understand evaluation process that was easy for DOHMH staff to volunteers to administer onsite (as I was not able to be at all gatherings) and for participants to not have much of a problem completing. Also, it was a lesson learned in developing an evaluation tool that generates honest constructive feedback AND helping staff and volunteers learn how to look for generated themes by a variety of participants.

This activity is ideal for:

Staff responsible for developing and overseeing the implementation of programs, services, and strategies
Gathering quick feedback in a time-crunch
Breaking out of the standard survey construction model
Staff interested in building their skills and confidence in qualitative data collection and analysis

Here’s what you need:

There are two ways to implement this process:

Option 1: Sheets of paper, writing utensils
Option 2: Butcher paper or a white board, a marker, writing utensils, post-its

The process:

For option 1: Have participants divide their sheets into four quadrants labeled “I Like”, “I Wish”, “I Wonder”. (You can also have sheets that already have the labels typed out. You’ll have an empty quadrant, and I’ll explain what to do with it later.

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20 Feb, 2019

Try This: Increase Your Staff and Stakeholders’ Engagement and Collaboration

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T20:25:18-04:00February 20th, 2019|Categories: Research & Evaluation|Tags: Try This|0 Comments

When a program is developed, it’s done so for various reasons, including based on current and relevant research, anecdotal and collected feedback and evidence from participants, funders, and more.

But even the most well-developed programs can suffer if your staff and stakeholders aren’t engaged enough to care about how the program is designed to work beyond focusing on outcomes and impact only.

As I’ve continued to shift more into engaging my clients in a more participatory way, we’ve been working together to develop a more collaborative process that generates a culture of learning about how they’re developing their programs and how their program recipients are responding to it, rather than merely meeting metrics commissioned by someone else.

Compared to previous Try This posts, what I’m sharing today is more of a process rather than actual activities. And for the purposes of today’s post, I’m labeling this process the “staff and stakeholder engagement and collaborative process“. The actual name depends on the client project I’m working on (for example, with one client, it’s called the “evaluation working group” while the process is called the “evaluation working group” with another client).

Regardless of the name, the process is the same: Bringing together staff and stakeholders to develop program goals, discover insights into how participants are engaging with the program, and develop a strategy for routine program evaluation and course-correction and generating buy-in among your staff and stakeholders.

This activity is ideal for:

Nonprofit and social services staff interested in developing more engagement and collaboration between staff and stakeholders (i.e. program participants, board members, and other supporters)
Nonprofit and social services staff that are responsible for developing and overseeing the implementation of programs, services, and strategies

Here’s what you need:

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23 Jan, 2019

Try This: The Identity Wheel

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T20:23:16-04:00January 23rd, 2019|Categories: Program, Service, & Campaign Design|Tags: Try This|0 Comments

What is identity? More importantly, how do our various identities impact how we view the world, and how the world views us?

For people in the social work field and other helping professions, self awareness aids us in how to prepare for encounters with clients whose thoughts, attitudes, and lived experiences are different from ours. With my own consulting clients, we’ve had conversations about how our identities impact how we gain access to the communities we work with. The conclusion is this:

Just because we share similar identities doesn’t mean we share the same lived experiences.

Here’s an activity, adapted from the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts’ Inclusive Teaching Initiative called The Identity Wheel.

This activity is ideal for:

Encouraging reflection on the ways we identify personally and socially, and how we perceive the world and how the world perceives us
Identify settings and situations in which our identities are felt the most
Identify ways in which our identities afford us privilege

Here’s what you need:

White sheets of paper
Markers, pens, or pencils
Rulers, if needed
Round color-coding labels in four colors (like these)

The steps:

Pass out the sheets of paper and writing utensils to participants. On the sheets, draw a circle and divided into 8 sections (using rulers, if needed), like this: