aes23 International Evaluation Conference

Julie Elliott (Julie Elliott, -), Hawkins Andrew (ARTD, AU), Keogh Brian (Cobalt59, AU), Scally-Irvine Scally-Irvine (KSI Consulting, NZ)

An evaluation should be judged on its usefulness. Evaluators familiar with the principle of Utilization Focused Evaluation accept that their job is to facilitate decision making amongst the people who will use both the evaluation findings and the process itself to inform decisions and improve performance. Yet evaluators are often disappointed with the extent an evaluation is actually used. Limited evaluation use can happen despite an evaluators best efforts to identify and engage with primary intended users, and ensure that intended process and uses of the evaluation by the primary intended users guide their decisions about the evaluation process.

To advance ideas about how we frame and approach evaluation use, this interactive world-café takes the perspective of Machiavelli and systems science. The purpose of this session is three fold. First, we reflect on the incongruity of evaluation use theory and the reality of how contemporary administrative and bureaucratic systems behave. Second, we look through the lenses of Machiavelli and systems science to transform the way that we see evaluation use. Third, together we develop a better explanation of what evaluators can do to facilitate use under uncertain and highly complex administrative and bureaucratic circumstances, including identifying the key choices that evaluators must make in deciding how, under what circumstances and why to facilitate use.