Valuing evaluation and elevator pitches - Part 1

We need to get much better at "selling" evaluation (the "E" in "M&E"). This is important especially in the Global South, where evaluation may be particularly valuable in helping those with little hope for a better life.

Perhaps this means that we should have a better, more collective understanding of the value proposition of evaluation - that is, the value that evaluation promises to deliver to those who can use it, and the beliefs of the (potential) users about the value that they will experience.

We also need to get much better at communicating what we actually do.

I am not sure that we will do well if we have to present our case to a venture capitalist or the CEO of an influential organisation. We still do not have a series of convincing 2 minute "elevator speeches" lined up for those occasions when a stranger asks us what we do. Or, for that matter, lay persons, and our family and friends, or the potential and intended beneficiaries of our work.

So where exactly do we go wrong?

Our definitions of evaluation, even the simplest ones, appear to be too technocratic for most people. We also don't see many shared narratives about our profession emerging from those who practise it around the world. Perhaps this is because evaluation has so many dimensions. It is also diverse, practised by many different groupings and, of course, open to dispute and controversy.

But for our professionalisation - or rather, for our professionalism - it is becoming increasingly important to cultivate at least a few important shared narratives around our profession, including elevator pitches.

At the very least this will demand from us that our messages position our profession effectively within societal needs and priorities. We will have to understand how to communicate real value - whatever that means to society in each context and in each culture.

"What do you do?" My two minute elevator pitch

I have to work at developing a more convincing, punchy narrative to catch the attention of an influential CEO or venture capitalist who has never heard of evaluation - it is still too uninspiring and does not capture the wide reach of the potential value of evaluation.

"What do you do?" My four minute pitch to strangers

My four minute narrative for strangers I meet at social gatherings or on planes seems to work fairly well when it is someone who does not even know what "programme" or "development" means. They usually want to know more, with real interest.

I would love to see others' narratives to see whether they capture the imagination and can project the full value proposition of evaluation in a few simple sentences to someone who has little idea of what we do.