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.

One thing I find most important is articulating assumptions and pre-conditions. I have been writing this in project proposals but never gone back to review this.

An implementation plan based on faulty assumptions is not likely to bring about the desired goal. This statement is important in that, while developing a pathway of change, one has to pay critical attention to the assumptions if the project desired goal is to be achieved.

"There is much, much more detail to add in order to tell the full story, and without being reminded of that (a few times), participants may find it difficult to focus on outcomes at this stage of the process." Although this sentence is about developing a pathway of change, I think it is an important reminder for the whole process. In my experience many people want to dive into the details, or to completely flesh out an answer to a question. However in order to get the most important pieces of the puzzle down in whatever time is allocated, it is important to remind people that this doesn't need to be the perfect, most complete or detailed view right now. I like to ask whether resolving this point will significantly change the rest of our answer - if not, we can safely park it until later.

What evidence will we use to measure the preconditions. This concept is important because it is telling participants in the theory of change process to identify indicators that will show the success of their outcomes

In other words, after participating in the theory building process, all of the stakeholders should be on the same page about what they are trying to accomplish, the early and intermediate outcomes that must be reached to be successful, how all of the outcomes will be measured, and what actions they are going to have to take to bring all of this change about.italicised text

It is important for the theory building process to be participatory so that everyone involved will take ownership of the results of the process. The implementation of the theory of change will be a shared responsibility of everyone involved as well as their shared accountability.

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