My Communities

Number 1 point in any project. I would say even more – communication is the driving force in great majority of situations that happen in the world. It is very important to have a constant talk with each member. Thus a manager gets ongoing feedback, updates colleagues and simply shows that he is not a boss with tough management style, but a leader who can discuss even yesterdays’ TV-show.

I worry that my organisation might create a TOC that is difficult to measure because we did not clearly identify specific indicators at different levels (input, output and outcome). To avoid this, I will need to invest adequate time thinking deeply and clearly articulating what my organisation would want to be held accountable for, and what it is we would want to achieve, who we want to target and by when, and clearly stating our assumptions. More practically, it may involve reviewing relevant literature to understand and doing consultations with stakeholders to gain insights that will help us to focus on our goal and identify/develop the concrete "signs" of achievement of results.

I worry that my organization might not take external constraints into considerations because every state or office or branch has its own challenges. To avoid this i will suggest we develop varying action plans for various offices in the different locations
I would explain to my team that realizing we need to change is the first step to a greater success and doing thing the same way as old will not move the company forward in this competitive market

I worry that my organization will not be able to take into account all those pitfalls because they do not have skills to do so. We lack human capacity to develop a fully functional theory of change

Confusing accountability with hope is the most difficult to avoid as you want to do more. We can avoid this by being aware and honest of what we can realistically accomplishment given our context: limited budget and personnel.

I worry that my organization might be assuming we have figured it all out because proper allowance has not been made for the regularly testing the continuous validity of our assumptions as well as considering what new assumptions we might need to test to learn from and improve impact. To avoid this, I will endeavour to recognize and explicitly account for as many relevant uncertainties underlying our plans.

The resources, strategies, interventions to redirect them are very challenging and some times become confident enough to not develop assumptions and engaging resources for the situations. And to counter them it will be good to redesign entire systems backed by the philosophy of ToC

This is a wise thing to be done, and it will be better to orient them over thus concept of theory of change. For this an orientation session with your colleagues and mamagement will work for u

Based on my experience at my organisation, the trap that we fall into most often is "creating a mirror instead of a target," as ToCs are typically not completed at the beginning of the project, and are sometimes designed as an after thought rather than as a strategy tool. To avoid this pitfall, it means socialising this idea of doing a ToC at the beginning of a project cycle, and start conversations about it as early as possible.

Based on my experience at my organisation, the trap that we fall into most often is "creating a mirror instead of a target," as ToCs are typically not completed at the beginning of the project, and are sometimes designed as an after thought rather than as a strategy tool. To avoid this pitfall, it means socialising this idea of doing a ToC at the beginning of a project cycle, and start conversations about it as early as possible.

Based on my experience at my organisation, the trap that we fall into most often is "creating a mirror instead of a target," as ToCs are typically not completed at the beginning of the project, and are sometimes designed as an after thought rather than as a strategy tool. To avoid this pitfall, it means socialising this idea of doing a ToC at the beginning of a project cycle, and start conversations about it as early as possible.

Based on my experience at my organisation, the trap that we fall into most often is "creating a mirror instead of a target," as ToCs are typically not completed at the beginning of the project, and are sometimes designed as an after thought rather than as a strategy tool. To avoid this pitfall, it means socialising this idea of doing a ToC at the beginning of a project cycle, and start conversations about it as early as possible.

I worry that my organization might fail to take the external context into account, because the dynamics of the situation in which the benificiaries of the project is complex one and the level of poverty in the target communities is also needs deeper logical thinking and critical reflection. To avoid this, my project team will take a quality time to get deeper understanding of the external context will help me and my team create a more realistic theory of change. Moreover, integrateing the anticipated actions of policy makers, the work of peer organizations, expected changes in the economic climate, and other factors will be curcial acts to be implemented.

I worry that my organization will create a non-measurable theory , because it might articulate wrong perception assumptions. To avoid this, I will review and set up a real pathway to inter-ling the assumptions and the interventions within my risk register exercise.

I worry that my organization might not be able to clearly define the accountabilitty process because there are no real information about the topic. To avoid this, I will try to find ways to create the numbers we need.

Hello my friend Bello

When we identify pitfalls we gain perspective of what may negatively affect us

Our pitfalls are creating theory that isn't measurable and assuming we've figured it all out.
Our program is to raise awareness of human rights, after trainings completed, it just ended. We don't have any measurable indicator and we though we success.
We can fix that problem by creating survey questions to analyze what they learned from our trainings. And, we need to discuss about our theory again.

I WORRY THAT MY ORGANISATION MAY NOT BE ABLE TO MANAGE THE INCIDENCES OF LOW OUTCOMES IF THE PROJECT DOES NOT ACCOMPLISH ITS PURPOSE

The most challenging pitfall to avoid for my organization would be failing to take external context into account. When developing a program in Venezuela, you're subject to a lot of arbitrary, sudden, and unpredictable changes due to the severe economic, social, and institutional crisis that the country is undergoing. To avoid this, we have to consider the worst-case scenarios and be prepared accordingly with plan B or C.

Not be able to avoid our activities, strategies and resources because to avoid this, I will have to rethink what we intend to achieve

A well-run Theory of Change process can be transformative for an organization. A poorly-run process can be a huge waste of time. Identifying the problems that might occur (the pitfalls) beforehand will help your organization avoid common issues.

I worry that my organization might fail to reach the expected target audience (beneficiaries) and also not fully achieve very concrete results (results). This is mainly due to the fact that some learners from non-under resourced schools may be among those benefiting, and chasing them may be very hard. In fact, not all the beneficiaries may benefit from the project. This can hence influence the project scope and budget, among others. To avoid these, we will work will school head teachers, who will provide us with school registers so that the right beneficiaries are part of the project.

external constraints if not paid attention to can bring about what we call scope creep, where the project scope changes on its own...

I worry that my organization might have assumption of figuring it all out because I think some of the assumptions have not been considered during developing the ToC. To avoid this, I will set a learning agenda and revise the ToC constantly.

I worry that my organization mostly creates a mirror instead of targets. This is because there is already a set out methodology that guides how things should work making it abit rigid when it comes to coming up with a theory of change. To avoid this i will brainstorm of various ways to work around the organization methodology, making it more flexible to the activities and strategies

I think my organization will have problems producing its results in the allotted time. because the interventions take place during the school year during this one the teachers always go on strike. Pupils therefore do not receive the initially planned hourly volume.
To avoid this trap, I recommend that the organization links the expected results of the project to the number of hours taught.

I think the object was to consider one of the six pitfalls that can be encountered in the conception of the theory of change.

I worry that my organization might write about the mirror instead of the target because it s difficult. To avoid this, I will write the outcomes and activities clearly with assumptions.

In our organization as pitfall we can identify the fact that we can create a theory that it may be not measurable

I do not belong to a specific organization, although I have worked with several. The pitfall I most revise myself in designing programs or projects is "Failing to take the external context into account". To avoid this, I would need to work on a deep understanding of the external context, research what has been done on the program main topics, and what it is planned to be done in the next years.

I worry that my organisation might fail to take external context into account because we are the only implementing partner within our area of work. To avoid this, I will ensure to corporate with government agencies responsible for the same program and to remotely coordinate with other IPs elsewhere through selective borrowing and improvement strategy

I worry that my organization might assume that we have it all figured out because of the inevitable subjectivity that comes with being part of the process of creating a theory of change. What we can do in this regard is to work together to ensure that there are different perspectives that allow us to recognize the things that need to be improved in our theory of change.

One of the pit fall my organization is most likely to fall into is not considering external context. This is because some of the interventions would be impacted by some external stakeholders working along the same line. To prevent this we need to understand what other stakeholders are doing along the various pathways to the desired change and ensure that our strategies/interventions build synergy with other initiatives and avoid duplication of efforts and counterproductivity

@MES-Diyan i resonate with your point as well

Measure our impact will be hard. We will try to come back and validate our indicators.

I worry that my organization might "Not confirming the plausibility of your theory" because of limited resources and time. To avoid this, i will take time to make research and get to know all details before embarking on working or finishing the theory of Change

I worry that my organization might creating a mirror instead of a target, because does not reflect what is already doing. To acoid this, I will help to define a target population and indicator to measure results.

You do not worry, there are many organizations that works with a lack of people. The important thing is try to applied the Theory of Change in the projects where it can be succesful.

I worry that my organization might assume that we have figure it all out because we have confused our accountability with our hopes . To avoid this, I will we need to make sure that we specify our assumptions, regularly reflect on whether such assumptions are bearing out, and monitor what new assumptions can be tested to improve the organisational impact. Our organisation can also develop a learning agenda - with simple list of assumptions and hypothesis that our organisation can test at various timeframes.

Interpersonal conflict, To avoid this i will improve competence.

I worry that my organization might not be well enough equiped at this time to take into consideration the external factors because the COVID-19 pandemic caused a lot of uncertainties and the effects on our community are devastating and reaching far. It affects our goals in ways we believe we cannot yet comprehend. To avoid this, we will discuss this potential pitfall and try to make some possible scenarios for this

I worry that my organization might assuming figured it all out, because we are too sure of our assumptions without paying attention to the possibilities that might happen in the future. To avoid this i will make a periodic schedule to test our assumptions whether they are still relevant or not.

A potential pitfall is to not confirm the plausibility of our theory because we typically rely on internal dialogue. With this realisation now, we will definitely take steps to ensure we engage available data and resources to confirm our theories/assumptions.

@Sheila_TOC2 said in Module 1: Identify Pitfalls:

I worry that my organisation might create a TOC that is difficult to measure because we did not clearly identify specific indicators at different levels (input, output and outcome). To avoid this, I will need to invest adequate time thinking deeply and clearly articulating what my organisation would want to be held accountable for, and what it is we would want to achieve, who we want to target and by when, and clearly stating our assumptions. More practically, it may involve reviewing relevant literature to understand and doing consultations with stakeholders to gain insights that will help us to focus on our goal and identify/develop the concrete "signs" of achievement of results.

@Sheila_TOC2: I align with your proposed line to action to avoid this pitfall

@meps: I can relate to your post. Confusing hope with defined results to be achieved is a common pitfall that should be flagged

I worry that my organization might be creating a mirror instead of a target. Because it articulate what the organization want to be held accountable for. To avoid this, we would have to take a hard look to propose any changes to these elements.

I worry that my organization might underestimate the uncertainties in our plan because we lack of following-up with the clients after completing the evaluations. To avoid this, I will make a schedule for post-evaluation activities with specific indicators to measure the impact of the service to follow up with our clients.

I worry that my organization might aware because number of staff. To avoid this, I will ask and follow on this.

I worry that my organization might confuse hope with accountability because it is difficult to find a line between setting an ambitious outcome and one that is still measurable and realistic. To avoid this, I will make sure we don't become vague in the definitions and have a in- depth discussion about it.

I worry that my organization might assume we've figure it all out because of the in depth planning. To avoid this, I will create a list of assumptions and hypotheses that my organization can test at some frequency. .

We need trained people

I worry that my organization might not understand the interest of the theory of change, the board might prefer see short-term process in order to get funds. For this reason, I will raise awareness of board members about the growing interest of institutionnal donors in theory of change

I worry that my organization might confuse accountability with hope because we have the belief that hope is the pillar of our organization. To avoid this, I will discuss the disadvantages of doing that with my team.

I worry that my organization might is having difficulties in avoiding almost all of the pitfalls because the team is new and majority have no experience in creating a theory of change. To avoid this i will facilitate more training to creating theories that are clear and precise.

Considero que el reto mas desafiante es la medición de resultados, en tanto implica la formulación clara y precisa de los indicadores y la elaboración de los instrumentos adecuados que permitan un ejercicio consistente

I worry that in the ToC process, my organisation will continue reflect on what we have been doing because we feel they are big enough to reach our vision. To avoid this, I will keep asking for us to work backwards to identify necessary activities, strategies, resources - so we could articulate what our organisation wants to be held accountable for.

I worry that my organization might create a theory that is not measurable because of its history of what is considers important outcome data. To avoid this, I will work hard to help the team understand what it means for something to be measurable.

I have too often been involved in school-based projects that do not take into consideration the time limits of the academic day or year.

I worry that my organisation might not confirm the plausibility of our theory because we have not critically reviewed whether previous activities had generated required results and how what we propose to do would yield and reasonable outcome. To avoid this I will go back and do more reading and reviewing of previous activities and similar projects.

I fear may fail becausparticipants failing to turn up for HIV testing and or
Positive HIV patients failing to adhere to to take ARVs, we aim to tackle this through deployment of experienced counselors to encourage people to participate in the program and those found positive to adhere to drugs.

I worry that our project will struggle reaching the desired target because, people might fail to participate in HIV testing campaign citing fear of knowing their status and or positive patient failing to adhere to drug prescription.
This we target to improve it by deploying a team of experienced counselors to encourage participants.

I worry that my organization might fail because, participants might fail to turn up for testing because of fear to know their statuses, those who turn up and test positive might fail to adhere to the right prescription of ARVs.
we intend to deploy a team of professional counselors to help in encouraging people to participate and take drugs correctly once tested positive

I worry that my organization might not take into account the reality of South Africa's failing economy because we are all used to ignoring the flags and getting on with our lives. To avoid this, I will attempt to gather sufficient facts and communicate it in a way that also engages with peoples emotional connection.

I worry that my (hypothetical) organization might not do enough to confirm the plausibility of their theory because in the past they have made sweeping statements about what they are able to accomplish without having good data to back these statements up. To avoid this I will work on finding a way to measure outcomes of our participants against a control group.

Due to the broad mandate of the organization, it might end up creating a theory that is not measurable. To avoid this a logical framework will be workout for the proposed interventions. This enable to understand the logical link between activities, short term outputs, medium term outcomes, and long term goal and define the means to measure, the indicators and verification at each level.

I worry that my organization might produce poor quality work because of staff demoralization. To avoid this, i will include team building and staff rewards and eliminated micromanagers.

I worry that my organization might fail to take the external context into account because sport clubs don't realize they are part of many different communities and have many different "competitors". To avoid this, I will bring up the topic at the beginning of the development of the theory of change

The most probable one is creating a theory that is not measurable. I think it could be the changes might not reflect in productivity and income so, there would not be obvious indicators. To avoid it, i will look for other indicators, which are not numerical to assess progress

I worry that our organization might create a mirror instead of targets because of one's differences in the context. To avoid this, I will ensure that everybody will have a common understanding and shall prepare them for possible flaws that the organization may encounter in the delivery or implementation of a certain program. They must also be prepared for failures and shall learn to celebrate wins.

I worry that my organization might think they have got it all on theory of change because there is a tendency to think by attending one training we have known it all. To avoid this , i will keep revisiting the topic and seeking ways the team can realize that change is inevitable and there is need for continuous learning

This is true to remain optimist and see the reality of things

I worry my organization can have trouble identifying the effective time to finally deliver a project. The outcomes can be evaluated by monitoring the ongoing processes, then identifying the gap between what we expected to achieve and what we can really achieve by the end of the intervention.

I worry that my organisation may confuse the term accountability with the term hope towards the target group. Despite the professionalism and experience in the field, sometimes there is a risk of hope that things can change. In order to avoid this, I personally must always have my goals in mind and try to give the best of myself taking into account the priorities at work.

I worry that my organization might not confirm the plausibility of its theory and also create a theory that isn’t measurable, because in many cases concerning the growth of people through education and ethics, it is necessary to consider the human accountability as a fundamental factor: Will they react as I suppose they will, will they accept the path I have prepared for them? All these variants make it difficult to support our assumptions with evidence, unless a prior and similar situation has already proven to be effective.

I worry that my organization might be able to measure theory because changes in people’s lifestyle is not always easy to detect. To avoid this, I will create a logical model to help articulate the input, output, and outcome indicators.

Thinking that you have made it all. need for robust scrutinization on every stage

from my point of view, the most difficult pitfall to avoid is "failing to take the external context into account.". Context analysis is fundamental to better understand the place of our action and to better design our action. But most of the time in the "external context" other organitations are working, and it is very difficult to understand what they are doing and coordinate with them. (cluster system should be better implemented from my point of view!).

Example: I worry that my organization might not confirm the plausibility of our theory because it may be untested or untried in this context. To avoid this, I will review literature to look at evidence-based theories and practices that could be adapted and applied.

I worry that my organization might create a theory that is not measurable because the impact relates to human behaviour and psyche. To avoid this, I will articulate the input, output and outcomes indicators in deep detail while trying to quantifying most of them to the extent possible.

I worry that my organization might Confuse accountability with hope because we are over ambitious. To avoid this, I will set SMART objectives, Targets and Indicators while developing a theory of change.

Consider your organization. Which of the six pitfalls described in this article will be most difficult to avoid? Why? How will you avoid this pitfall?

Example: I worry that my organization might __fail because _funds are not released on time. To avoid this, I will ______PREPARE RELEASE OF FUNDTS A BIT EARLIER ______.

A theory of change can be a helpful tool
for developing solutions to complex
social problems.

I think the biggest challenge is to take into account the external contextual factors. Especially in transnational projects, taking into account the contextual factors (e.g. laws, policies, socio-economic factors) can be very complex. It is therefore of particular importance to work together with experts/stakeholders and to have a good scientific evidence base.

it has been a good module but i have this question, how would u deal with these pitfall in most cases when you have a lot to implement.

Am worried my organisation will Confusing accountability with hope because we concentrate more on the big pictures. To avoid this is to clearly define the results that must be elivered to be successful not what we hope to happen.

I am concerned that my organisation does not take external contexts into account because mental health, which is the core of the organisation is such a subject that does not have a state framework guiding it. To avoid the pitfall, relevant stakeholders need to be engaged, including the state agencies, the target populations and other non-state actors in championing a holistic approach to instituting a mental health policy in Nigeria

This is true of many organizations as they throng along with the usual, believing they are on the right track

I worry that my organization might not be a success because not all patients will take the drugs as prescribed and others may withdraw.
this shall be alleviated by employing a team of well trained counselors, health specialists to carry out drug observed therapy.

I expect to have challenges with client not take medicine correctly as prescribed due to nature of there chronic condition that would likely cause depression and withdrawal, and also due to the likely immediate side effects of the drugs.
to this, the organization will employ highly trained counselors to encourage patients, together with a trained group of village health teams to help in drug observed therapy through reminding patients and actually witness patients taking medications

Good and relevant

I'm afraid my organization has a very faint concept of accountability but as a great deal of hope because we think it figured.

I think I need to be more accountable and disciplined enough to stick tour critical objectives.

I worry that my organization might create a theory that isn’t measurable, because it is dificult to measure the qualitative improvements in the ending of domestic violence. To avoid this, I will try to find among the qualitative aspects some mesurables indicators.

It is important for my Organisation to be absolutely sure of the difference it wants to make, so that it doesn't confuse this with what it hopes to achieve.

It is important for my Organisation to be absolutely sure of the difference it wants to make, so that it doesn't confuse this with what it hopes to achieve.

I worry that my organization might fail to create a measurable theory of change because _it has many priorities and an very complete organization with 7 services being offered. To avoid this, I will try to involve other teammates and bosses to map out the areas of priority for both the long term and short-term interventions.

The theory that is difficult to avoid is creating a theory that is not measuring,
Wht: Its because through the life of the project outcome and impact is a must to be able to measure change
How: I make sure track the logic model through tracking the input, output and the outcome indicators to be able to know what is working well.

i worry that my organization might not track the logic model through tracking the input, output , because they did not gather the right indicator frequency to know whether it working well and to avoid this, I need to measure the key elements

I worry that my organization might not achieve its desired outcome because they are not taking the context into consideration. To avoid this, I will condcut interviews and analysis with externals to my org/ .