Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
How can Outcome Mapping
help strengthen knowledge and learning
strategies?
Ben Ramalingam
Why are knowledge strategies
so popular?
• Evaluation lessons being ignored
• Consultant reports getting buried
• Research being bypassed
• Operational / field experience being lost when staff move on
• Organisational learning being blocked by hierarchies or internal structures
• Agencies not knowing what each other are doing
• Local stakeholders being left out of the loop
In an ideal (corporate) world
knowledge and learning initiatives
would look something like this…
“…The idea is not to
create an
encyclopaedia of
everything that
everybody knows,
but to keep track of
people who ‘know
the recipe’, and
nurture the
techniques,
technology and
culture that will get
them talking…”
Goals ResultsUsing
Knowledge
UsingKnowledge
Learn During
Learn After
Learn Before
Knowledge Bases e.g. self, colleagues, systems, networks
But development agencies are a
little different…
• Development sector organisations
“…dealing with the most complex, ill-defined questions facing humanity…”
• The re-branding of the World Bank as the Knowledge Bank was very influential
• Rapid growth of KM / OL strategies across agencies of all sizes and functions
• ODI has done research on knowledge strategies in a range of organisations
Findings• Knowledge initiatives are still largely focused on products and systems (outputs) as
opposed to processes and behaviour changes (outcomes)
• A few tools are being applied, but none in a widespread or systematic way
• Knowledge initiatives are distant from or in conflict with processes, functions and existing culture
• High-level buy-in and leadership is rare
• “Knowledge is power” but knowledge strategies often sits on top of existing inefficiencies and power imbalances, rather than resolving them
• Inter-agency knowledge flows are not covered in any knowledge strategies
• With the South, dominant modes are “transfer to” or “extract from”, rather than a process of mutual learning
• Objective, evidence-based M&E of learning is weak
Constraints• Much knowledge is highly specialist and not of organisation-wide interest
• Lack of time– Underlying priorities?
• Internal processes don’t provide contexts for knowledge sharing
• Lack of a learning culture and incentives– individualistic cultures and funding structures
– Knowledge is power
• Multiple objectives can blur the imperative for knowledge and learning activities– In private sector, coherence of KM is matched by coherence of objectives
• The incremental nature of behaviour change + relatively new area of work
• Initiatives over-laden with high expectations and too many activities– At least partly due to “knowledge evangelism”
– shopping lists, not strategies
Colleagues; networks; tools
And so the initiatives we looked at were
less like this picture…
Goals ResultsUsing
Knowledge
UsingKnowledge
Create
Share Store
And more like this picture…
Learn to get all your feet on the
ground before trying to move!
Outcome Mapping has already
helped in (at least!) six ways
Low
High
ProgramBeneficiaries/Indigenous Actors
Lesson one: focus more on
contribution to outcomes, rather than
attribution!
Influence
Time
Inputs Activities Outputs Outcomes Impacts
= BPs
Partners
IT
HR
Knowledge &
Learning
Program
Library
Eval
Depts
= SPs
Field
staff
Admin
staff
Desk
officers
Senior
Mgmt
Donors
Media
Comms
Lesson Two: understanding the boundary partners and
strategic partners attitudes and approach is essential
Lesson three: move from boundary partners to outcome
challenges to progress markers to strategy maps in a
participatory fashion
Lesson four: Use Organisational
Practices systematically to ensure
strategies are tailored to existing
organisational contexts• E.g.
1. Prospecting for new ideas, opportunities, & resources
2. Seeking feedback from key informants
3. Obtaining the support of your next highest power
4. Assessing & (re)designing products, services, systems, and procedures
5. Checking up on those already served to add value
6. Sharing your best wisdom with the world
7.Experimenting to remain innovative
8. Engaging in organizational reflection
Lesson five: Use journals to address the
crucial M&E gap
Lesson six: use the flexibility of OM to
combine with other compatible
methodologies
1. Competency frameworks
2. Social network analysis
3. Force field analysis
4. Most significant change
…and more…
Problem 1: OM is a little like
farming – you have to have faith, be
persistent, and adapt to
circumstances…
Problem 2: top-down decision
making on issues relating to
boundary partners feels incongruous
with a commitment to OM
Problem 3: The role of knowledge
and learning specialists is not as a
technocrat / doctor but as a
sparkplug
FINAL THOUGHT
Focus on contribution, not
attribution is particularly important
in the context of knowledge for
development
- “whose knowledge counts”
