Develop teams and individuals BSBLED401A

1
Develop teams and individuals BSBLED401A

• By
• Yuwaluck Pongkasemsombut
• ID C62152

2
Individual learning plans

• Based on scenario of Sherman Pty Ltd is a
  multinational organization operating at the
  Information Technology market and its sales
  department has been recently experiencing some
  problems affecting its outcomes. It appears that
  the team members work as individualists, they are
  not cooperating with each other and they are not
  working effectively as a team. We should learn
  about how to develop a learning plan for
  individuals and team learning plan.
• We will start about how a learner will get from
  their starting point on a learning journey to the
  desired end point. They may be for one course and
  include the acquisition of qualifications and
  skills, or may link several courses that give
  progression to different levels (from level 1 to
  3, or from level 2 to Higher Education). They
  should be individual for each learner to reflect
  aspirations, aptitude and needs.
• Although there may be common learning goals and
  methods of delivery for all learners on a
  particular course, it is unlikely that all
  learners have exactly the same learning styles,
  abilities, support needs, access to assessment in
  the workplace (if applicable), previous
  qualifications or experience. Too many
  vocationally-based courses have identical
  individual learning plans where only the names of
  learners are different. Some will struggle to
  achieve them while others will find them too easy
  and lose interest by not being sufficiently
  challenged.

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Individual learning plans (cont.)

• Individual learning plans should start from a
  common format, listing general outcomes, and then
  develop as initial assessment and circumstances
  impact. They should be live documents that are
  useful to the learner, delivery staff and
  possibly employers . How does the way you use
  individual learning plans to support your
  learners compare with that of the most effective
  provision seen on inspection? The following
  strengths and areas for improvement have been
  taken from recent inspection reports.
• Common inspection strengths
• Effective use of individual learning plans
• Good individual learning plans
• Good development of individual learning plans
• Common inspection areas for improvement
• Poor development of individual learning plans
• Inadequate use of individual learning plans
• Poor planning of learning

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Individual learning plans (cont.)

• Particularly effective practice identified in
  inspections includes
• Developing a proforma for an individual learning
  plan that does not just meet the needs of funding
  bodies but covers all the elements required for a
  programme of learning. The development of the
  best proformas has taken into account the need to
  provide sufficient space for updating them.
• Not completing individual learning plans in a
  rush to meet funding body requirements
  (inspectors still see the individual learning
  plan being completed and signed off in induction
  before initial assessment is fully completed so
  that a copy can be sent to the funding body).
• Examples of developing a second individual
  learning plan as a 'working document' used
  throughout the time a learner is with the
  provider, that is focused on delivery of
  learning, assessment, support and target setting.
• Delivery staff receiving training in order to
  understand the results of initial assessment,
  such as literacy, numeracy or language
  requirements, and their impact on learning. This
  includes other learner support needs such as
  dyslexia, to ensure that the individual learning
  plan reflects support, assessment arrangements
  and possible need for extra time.

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Individual learning plans (cont.)

• Taking account of previous experience and
  learning, so that targets and times to gain
  assessments in an area in which learners have
  previous experience are realistic and do not hold
  the progress of learners up. Plans are individual
  in developing targets that stretch learners and
  keep them focused on achieving realistic
  milestones.
• Ensuring that each learner has an individual
  learning plan, based on their initial assessment
  and mapping the route from that starting point to
  the achievement of individual goals, for example
  completing the full framework, or gaining
  sustainable employment.
• Involving the learner in creating the first draft
  of their learning plan, understanding the reason
  for its contents and updating the plan with the
  learner (and employer if applicable) as training
  progresses and circumstances change.
• Using the learning plan as a working document by
  checking progress against it during reviews or
  tutorial activities, amending target dates for
  milestones such as achievement of units, key
  skills or other qualifications as necessary.
• Planning in more detail for the short term
  targets and in outline for the longer term
  targets.

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Individual learning plans (cont.)

• Using the individual learning plan to record how
  any additional support needs, identified by
  initial assessment, are to be provided for. This
  helps keep everyone involved in training in the
  'loop' and helps eliminate support being given in
  isolation from the main training programme.
• There are several examples of work-based
  providers having targets that reflect particular
  types of 'model learner', for example ones who
  have previous experience or qualifications, or
  those with additional support needs. These act as
  a preliminary guide in setting targets which can
  then be altered as the learner progresses.
• Some providers have altered individual learning
  plans to facilitate 'fast tracking' of learners,
  for example where emigration or pregnancy might
  prevent completion.
• Some providers with good information technology
  resources have made individual learning plans
  available online, which can be updated. Sections
  can be printed for reference where access to
  computers is limited.
• Quality improvement systems such as internal
  audit and review focusing on how well plans are
  completed and how they may be improved in the
  future. Good practice is noted and shared across
  the provider.

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Learning and Development Plan

• Learning and Development Policy
• through an effective learning and development
  plan consistent with the principles of employment
  equity, it will encourage and assist all
  employees to
• Acquire the knowledge and skills required to
  maximize their performance in their current
  positions
• Acquire new competencies in response to, or in
  preparation for, changing job requirements or new
  job opportunities
• Develop or redirect their careers as individual
  or organizational needs change
• Acquire knowledge and understanding respecting
  issues of fairness, equity, and human rights.
• Learning and development are shared
  responsibilities, and all employees are
  responsible for contributing to this undertaking.
  All decisions to engage in learning must be the
  product of discussion between the employee and
  the employee's supervisor

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Learning and Development Plan (cont.)

• Learning and Development Action Plan
• It is understood that various elements of this
  plan will require further consultation, referral
  and planning with existing university units that
  will be responsible for program delivery. For
  example
• Academic Computing Services
• Continuing Studies
• Employment Equity
• Financial Services
• Human Resources
• Occupational Health and Safety
• For each goal set out in the Policy, a number of
  actions are defined below and the initial
  responsibility for each action is attributed to
  individuals or bodies.

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How to Interview Potential Employees

• As your business grows, you will eventually find
  the need to hire employees. Having a good
  employee can be a valuable asset to your
  business, one which will allow your business to
  grow and profit. However, hiring the wrong
  employee can lead to disaster.
• The most important part of hiring an employee is
  the interview process. The questions you ask and
  the responses you are given are often the most
  important factor in determining if an individual
  is good for your company. Once you have a handful
  of prospects, its time to begin the interview
  process. For some people this is a difficult
  task.
• When you first meet the prospect and shake their
  hand, you will get a good idea of how confident
  they are. You want an employee who is confident,
  and can work well under pressure. Try to avoid
  asking questions which can be answered with a
  simple "no" or "yes". Ask questions which will
  force the person to go into details about
  themselves and their abilities. You don't want
  planned responses. You want real answers.
• Ask them questions about what type of supervisor
  makes them work hard, or what would be the
  perfect job for them. Find out how they manage
  their time, and where they plan on being five or
  ten years from now. These are powerful questions
  which will force them to give real answers,
  answers that will give you a solid of idea of
  whether or not they would be good for your
  company

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How to Interview Potential Employees (cont.)

• One of the most important things you should want
  to know is why they want to work for you. What
  qualities does your business have which attracted
  them? These are also good questions which will
  determine if they are a good candidate. If they
  seem to hesitate to talk about certain things,
  this is often a bad sign. You also want to be
  wary of candidates who say terrible things about
  their former employers. You want to look for
  employees who will ask you questions. Someone who
  asks questions about their employer shows that
  they can think for themselves, and this is the
  type of person you should want working for you.
  You don't want an employee you have to
  micromanage. When the interview comes to a
  conclusion, tell them when they can expect to
  hear from you.
• Hiring employees are one of the most important
  factors in the success or failure of your
  business. You want to work with people who you
  know will enhance your business, and who can
  think independently.

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Questions You May Use

• What five adjectives describe you best?
• Why should I consider you for this position?
• Why are you the best candidate for this position?
• Tell me about the one thing in your life you're
  proudest of.
• You've changed jobs frequently. What makes you
  think that this position will be different?
• What qualities do you think are necessary to make
  a success of this job?
• Describe your ideal job.
• How did you find out about this job?
• What do you know about the job?
• What do you know about the UTSA/this department?

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Questions You May Use (cont.)

• Is there anything that will prevent you from
  getting to work on time?
• Is there anything that will prevent you from
  working the jobs regular hours?
• What kinds of work interest you the most?
• What interests you most about this position?
• How do you feel about your present workload?
• What motivates you to do your best work?
• How can we best help you get your job done?
• Tell me about a time you went out on a limb to
  get the job done.
• What are the disadvantages of this line of work?
• What do you find most frustrating at work?

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Questions You May Use (cont.)

• Tell me about a project that got you really
  excited.
• How do you define doing a good job?
• What makes a job enjoyable for you?
• Under what conditions do you work best?
• What is your greatest strength/weakness or
  deficiency?
• Tell me about a work task you enjoy.
• Tell me about your last position and what you
  did.
• Tell me about the last time you made a mistake
  and how you corrected it.
• If you don't leave your current job, what will
  happen there? How far can you advance?
• Of all the work you have done, where have you
  been most successful?

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Questions You May Use (cont.)

• What types of office equipment have you used?
• Tell me about the types of word processing you
  did on your last job.
• What would you say are the major technical skills
  needed for this position?
• How do you merge a file in Microsoft Word?
• What certifications/classes have you completed
  this last year? Were any of them required by your
  supervisor?
• Describe the types of documents you deal with on
  a daily basis.
• What software programs do you use most often in
  your current position?
• Describe in detail your experience with computer
  software programs.
• Give me an example of a technical problem you had
  to solve. How did you implement the solution?
• Tell me about the PowerPoint presentations you
  have developed.

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team learning plan.

• Information on Team Learning Plan (TLP)
• The Team Learning Plan (TLP) is developed
  following a thorough assessment of team skills
  and knowledge relative to its current and
  prospective requirements. The Team Learning Plan
  governs and subsumes Individual Learning Plans,
  and designates team learning and development
  priorities and strategies. The Team Learning Plan
  highlights that team member learning and
  development is a team responsibility, not a
  private affair between individuals and their
  supervisor.
• Learning options for you and your team
• Learning Solutions can assist you to identify and
  meet the development needs of your team. Your
  learning advisor will work with you to design a
  customised learning solution to support you and
  your team and to assist you in meeting your
  goals.

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Learning options

• We can tailor programs for teams who are
• undergoing restructures or change initiatives
• working to define their vision, values and key
  behaviours
• developing a strategic plan
• seeking to improve communication and engagement
• needing to improve efficiency and responsiveness
  to internal and external clients
• building a new team or introducing a new leader
  to the team
• Our solutions can include
• facilitation of strategic planning sessions
• customised versions of courses run in Learning
  Solutions open program
• programs designed to meet specific needs
  particularly in the area of building effective
  teams
• assistance to establish mentoring programs

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teams performance

• Its important to understand that team members
  want regular feedback on their performance. The
  formal performance review is an important
  component but it shouldnt be the only one. Mind
  you, many firms also struggle to conduct the
  formal performance review effectively. What is
  needed is a mechanism where team members receive
  quality feedback throughout the year.
  Personally,
• Due to the heavy, unrelenting workload associated
  with tax and accounting compliance, when a job is
  completed most firms do not conduct any review of
  how well the job was done and what could be done
  in the future to improve. The tendency is to run
  straight to the next job.
• Instead, why dont you take 10 minutes at the end
  of each job and sit down with the team member who
  did the work and conduct a quick review
• What did we do well? This is the chance to
  provide positive feedback to the team member.
• What didnt we do well? This is a chance to
  provide some constructive feedback as to how the
  team member could improve. Mind you the answer to
  this question might also be that the reviewer
  needs to improve their performance !!

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teams performance

• How can we do the job better next year? For
  example are there some processes we need to
  improve?
• How might we get the client better organised in
  the future so that we can do the work more
  efficiently?
• What should be the time budget for this job next
  year? Its much easier to set the time budget
  when the work is fresh in your mind.
• You could also give the job a mark of 10.  What
  do you think would be the reaction of a team
  member if their job received a mark of 6 out of
  10? Most, I think, would ask what they need to do
  to get a 7 or and 8. This provides a focus on how
  we can improve. Some firms are starting to use
  these scores as a way of assessing performance to
  assist in promotion assessments and salary
  review.
• Of course the result of these reviews will often
  be some actions such as reviewing some processes,
  conducting some training, communicating with the
  client. A system will need to be implemented to
  ensure these actions are not lost.
• The end result is better feedback to team members
  with the added benefit of work being organised
  more effectively in a future.

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training and other development

• Key points
• In general staff felt that although there was in
  theory a commitment to training in higher
  education, the institutions they worked for had
  very little to offer in terms of staff
  development and career progression.
• Few staff had received formal training despite
  the changes to their work roles.
• New professional staff were more likely to feel
  that their training needs were taken seriously
  than other staff. But this tended to be an
  advantage only in the short term.
• Most staff experienced practical obstacles to
  obtaining the training they felt they needed.
• The biggest obstacles were reduced funding for
  training, spending priorities and the lack of
  time to undertake training.
• Further qualifications several members of staff
  were studying for further qualifications which
  they did largely in their own time and at their
  own expense.
• The majority were working towards an academic
  rather than a vocational qualification although
  they were not working in academic-related posts.
• They did this because they felt that academics
  lacked respect for vocational qualifications and
  would not take them seriously without academic
  qualifications.

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training and other development (cont.)

• Staff development most administrative and
  support staff did not feel that their
  institutions were committed to staff development.
• 'Pre-1992 universities' often did not have
  appraisal procedures for administrative and
  support staff.
• Staff in '1992 universities', where appraisal
  procedures were more advanced, often experienced
  a tension between the increased expectations
  generated by appraisal and the opportunities
  available to fulfil them.
• Again, new professionals had more positive
  experiences of appraisal and opportunities for
  staff development.
• Career progression staff expressed most
  frustration over their opportunities for career
  progression within higher education.
• The majority felt that they had no opportunities
  for progression at all.
• They identified the structure of higher education
  and lack of funding as the major constraints on
  their career progression.
• Many believed that the only way to progress was
  to move between higher education institutions or
  to look outside the sector.

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training and other development (cont.)

• Opportunities for training
• The administrative and support staff reported
  markedly similar experiences in terms of their
  opportunities for training. However, some
  distinctions between staff were apparent. The new
  professionals reported slightly more favourable
  experiences of training provision than the
  niche-finders or subject specialists. The new
  professionals had experienced a stronger
  commitment to their training than other staff.
  None of them had actually been offered training
  but when they had identified their training
  needs, their managers had been very supportive.
  One explained
• '... when I was appointed... I was offered no
  training at all through the university, so it was
  up to me to go and find it, which I did. But then
  they paid for it... they were fine.'
• Overall new professionals had encountered fewer
  obstacles to obtaining training and were less
  likely than other staff to have had requests for
  training refused. This was probably because they
  were working in newly created or rapidly
  expanding posts which were viewed favourably and
  were perceived as making an important
  contribution to higher education. As a
  consequence, managers viewed the provision of
  training for these posts as a sensible investment
  rather than a drain on resources.

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training and other development (cont.)

• Nevertheless, this distinction did not work
  across the board. Better access to training was
  short-lived, even for new professionals. One or
  two new professionals who had been in post for
  more than two or three years and whose posts were
  more firmly established, clearly found themselves
  facing similar obstacles to the niche-finders and
  subject specialists. It is likely that providing
  a favourable training environment for some new
  professionals was a pragmatic response to ensure
  that the new growth areas of higher education,
  which were generally the focus of management
  scrutiny, could be developed to their fullest
  capacity. Once this had been achieved and the
  preoccupation of managers had shifted, new
  professionals faced the same training environment
  as other administrative and support staff.
• Obstacles in training provision
• The majority of the administrative and support
  staff, however, reported a number of practical
  obstacles in relation to training. Most had
  received little training in recent years. More
  important, very few felt they had received the
  amount of training they needed to keep on top of
  their work. They perceived this lack of training
  to be particularly problematic given the rate of
  change they were experiencing in their jobs and
  the increased responsibilities many had taken on.
  These problems affected the vast majority of
  staff regardless of their area of work or
  institution type.

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training and other development (cont.)

• Funding for training had become increasingly
  constrained and was reportedly the biggest
  obstacle in accessing training. A junior member
  of technical support staff said
• '... we are encouraged to go, but I want to do a
  computer technicians' course, and the cost is so
  high for the department... There is encouragement
  to do it provided it doesn't cost too much.'
• Staff were finding it more and more difficult to
  attend externally run training courses which were
  usually more expensive than university-run
  courses. They were unable to attend external
  courses where equivalent internal courses were
  available. Yet, they felt that internal courses
  were often not run to the same standard as
  training courses in the private sector. In
  addition, some staff had to wait for long periods
  for cheaper alternatives to become available. And
  several staff had experienced problems in gaining
  access to oversubscribed internal training
  courses.
• This was especially problematic for technical and
  computing support staff. Many of the courses they
  wanted to attend were particularly expensive
  because of the IT-intensive nature of their
  training needs. A member of computing support
  staff explained

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training and other development (cont.)

• 'I think it's very difficult for us to justify
  commercial courses, costing over a thousand
  pounds for a few days, even though they're
  better courses..It's mainly when there's a
  university running them which are nice and
  cheap.'
• Yet the training needs of computing and support
  staff were often so specialised that it was not
  cost-effective to organise internal courses.
  These staff were acutely aware that they had lost
  touch with many developments in their field.
• Several staff expressed the view that the
  training needs of administrative and support
  staff lacked recognition compared to other staff
  working in higher education. They believed that
  when training budgets were tight, training in
  management, research and academic skills was
  given priority over training in administrative
  and support functions. This was a particular
  problem for staff who worked in institutions
  where training budgets have been devolved to
  department level. These staff spoke of a
  'Cinderella effect', whereby they came at the
  bottom of the list when training budgets were
  allocated and so were often forgotten. They also
  believed that their managers knew too little
  about their area of work to make informed
  decisions about their training needs.

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training and other development (cont.)

• Training for qualifications
• Given that the staff who took part in the group
  discussions were working in educational
  institutions it is not surprising that a large
  proportion of them were studying towards further
  qualifications. This group largely comprised
  technical support staff or administrators who
  came into most contact with academic staff.
  Computing support staff and librarians tended to
  be more concerned with keeping up with
  technological developments in their fields.
• The staff studying for a qualification reported
  that they received financial or intellectual
  support from their institutions only if their
  courses were considered to be directly of benefit
  to their department. As a result, most were
  self-financing and were studying outside their
  workplace. Some administrative and support staff,
  particularly the longer-serving staff, expressed
  surprise and discontent over the requirement for
  value for money in supporting training for
  qualifications. They expressed a general belief
  that universities should support 'learning for
  its own sake'. They felt that supporting training
  purely on a value-for-money basis was contrary to
  the aims and objectives of higher education.

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Monitoring and Evaluation

• What is monitoring and evaluation?
• Although the term monitoring and evaluation
  tends to get run together as if it is only one
  thing, monitoring and evaluation are, in fact,
  two distinct sets of organisational activities,
  related but not identical.
• Monitoring is the systematic collection and
  analysis of information as a project progresses.
• It is aimed at improving the efficiency and
  effectiveness of a project or organisation. It is
  based on targets set and activities planned
  during the planning phases of work. It helps to
  keep the work on track, and can let management
  know when things are going wrong. If done
  properly, it is an invaluable tool for good
  management, and it provides a useful base for
  evaluation. It enables you to determine whether
  the resources you have available are sufficient
  and are being well used, whether the capacity you
  have is sufficient and appropriate, and whether
  you are doing what you planned to do.

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Monitoring and Evaluation (cont.)

• Evaluation is the comparison of actual project
  impacts against the agreed strategic plans.
• It looks at what you set out to do, at what you
  have accomplished, and how you accomplished it.
  It can be formative (taking place during the life
  of a project or organisation, with the intention
  of improving the strategy or way of functioning
  of the project or organisation). It can also be
  summative (drawing learning from a completed
  project or an organisation that is no longer
  functioning). Someone once described this as the
  difference between a check-up and an autopsy!
• What monitoring and evaluation have in common is
  that they are geared towards learning
• from what you are doing and how you are doing it,
  by focusing on
• Efficiency
• Effectiveness
• Impact

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Monitoring and Evaluation (cont.)

• Efficiency tells you that the input into the work
  is appropriate in terms of the output. This could
  be input in terms of money, time, staff,
  equipment and so on. When you run a project and
  are concerned about its replicability or about
  going to scale, then it is very important to get
  the efficiency element right.
• Effectiveness is a measure of the extent to which
  a development programme or projectachieves the
  specific objectives it set. If, for example, we
  set out to improve the qualifications of all the
  high school teachers in a particular area, did we
  succeed?
• Impact tells you whether or not what you did made
  a difference to the problem situation you were
  trying to address. In other words, was your
  strategy useful? Did ensuring that teachers were
  better qualified improve the pass rate in the
  final year of school? Before you decide to get
  bigger, or to replicate the project elsewhere,
  you need to be sure that what you are doing makes
  sense in terms of the impact you want to achieve.
• From this it should be clear that monitoring and
  evaluation are best done when there has been
  proper planning against which to assess progress
  and achievements. There are three toolkits in
  this set that deal with planning the overview
  of planning, strategic planning and action
  planning.

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Monitoring and Evaluation (cont.)

• WHY DO MONITORING AND EVALUATION?
• Monitoring and evaluation enable you to check the
  bottom line (see Glossary of Terms) of
  development work Not are we making a profit?
  but are we making a difference? Through
  monitoring and evaluation, you can
• Review progress
• Identify problems in planning and/or
  implementation
• Make adjustments so that you are more likely to
  make a difference.
• In many organisations, monitoring and
  evaluation is something that that is seen as a
  donor requirement rather than a management tool.
  Donors are certainly entitled to know whether
  their money is being properly spent, and whether
  it is being well spent. But the primary (most
  important) use of monitoring and evaluation
  should be for the organisation or project itself
  to see how it is doing against objectives,
  whether it is having an impact, whether it is
  working efficiently, and to learn how to do it
  better.

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Monitoring and Evaluation (cont.)

• Plans are essential but they are not set in
  concrete (totally fixed). If they are not
  working, or if the circumstances change, then
  plans need to change too. Monitoring and
  evaluation are both tools which help a project or
  organisation know when plans are not working, and
  when circumstances have changed. They give
  management the information it needs to make
  decisions about the project or organisation,
  about changes that are necessary in strategy or
  plans. Through this, the constants remain the
  pillars of the strategic framework the problem
  analysis, the vision, and the values of the
  project or organisation. Everything else is
  negotiable. (See also the toolkit on strategic
  planning) Getting something wrong is not a crime.
  Failing to learn from past mistakes because you
  are not monitoring and evaluating, is.
• Monitoring and evaluation can
• Help you identify problems and their causes
• Suggest possible solutions to problems
• Raise questions about assumptions and strategy
• Push you to reflect on where you are going and
  how you are getting there

31
Monitoring and Evaluation (cont.)

• Provide you with information and insight
• Encourage you to act on the information and
  insight
• Increase the likelihood that you will make a
  positive development difference.
• MORE ABOUT MONITORING AND EVALUATION
• Monitoring involves
• Establishing indicators (See Glossary of Terms)
  of efficiency, effectiveness and impact
• Setting up systems to collect information
  relating to these indicators
• Collecting and recording the information
• Analysing the information
• Using the information to inform day-to-day
  management.
• Monitoring is an internal function in any project
  or organisation.

32
Monitoring and Evaluation (cont.)

• Evaluation involves
• Looking at what the project or organisation
  intended to achieve what difference did it want
  to make? What impact did it want to make?
• Assessing its progress towards what it wanted to
  achieve, its impact targets.
• Looking at the strategy of the project or
  organisation. Did it have a strategy? Was it
  effective in following its strategy? Did the
  strategy work? If not, why not?
• Looking at how it worked. Was there an efficient
  use of resources? What were the opportunity costs
  of the way it chose to work? How sustainable is
  the way in which the project or organisation
  works? What are the implications for the various
  stakeholders in the way the organisation works.
• Planning for monitoring and evaluation
• Monitoring and evaluation should be part of your
  planning process. It is very difficult to go back
  and set up monitoring and evaluation systems once
  things have begun to happen. You need to begin
  gathering information about performance and in
  relation to targets from the word go. The first
  information gathering should, in fact,

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Planning for monitoring and evaluation

• take place when you do your needs assessment.
  This will give you the information you need
  against which to assess improvements over time.
• When you do your planning process, you will set
  indicators. These indicators provide the
  framework for your monitoring and evaluation
  system. They tell you what you want to know and
  the kinds of information it will be useful to
  collect. In this section we look at
• What do we want to know? This includes looking at
  indicators for both internal issues and external
  issues.
• Different kinds of information.
• How will we get information?
• Who should be involved?

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WHAT DO WE WANT TO KNOW?

• What we want to know is linked to what we think
  is important. In development work, what we think
  is important is linked to our values.
• Most work in civil society organisations is
  underpinned by a value framework. It is this
  framework that determines the standards of
  acceptability in the work we do. The central
  values on which most development work is built
  are
• Serving the disadvantaged
• Empowering the disadvantaged
• Changing society, not just helping individuals
• Sustainability
• Efficient use of resources.
• So, the first thing we need to know is Is what
  we are doing and how we are doing it meeting the
  requirements of these values? In order to answer
  this question, our monitoring and evaluation
  system must give us information about

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WHAT DO WE WANT TO KNOW? (cont.)

• Who is benefiting from what we do? How much are
  they benefiting?
• Are beneficiaries passive recipients or does the
  process enable them to have some control over
  their lives?
• Are there lessons in what we are doing that have
  a broader impact than just what is happening on
  our project?
• Can what we are doing be sustained in some way
  for the long-term, or will the impact of our work
  cease when we leave?
• Are we getting optimum outputs for the least
  possible amount of inputs?
• DIFFERENT KINDS OF INFORMATION QUANTITATIVE AND
  QUALITATIVE
• Information used in monitoring and evaluation can
  be classified as
• Quantitative or
• Qualitative.

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DIFFERENT KINDS OF INFORMATION

• Qualitative measurement tells you how people feel
  about a situation or about how things are done or
  how people behave. So, for example, although you
  might discover that 50 of the teachers in a
  school are unhappy about the assessment criteria
  used, this is still qualitative information, not
  quantitative information. You get qualitative
  information by asking, observing, interpreting.
• Some people find quantitative information
  comforting it seems solid and reliable and
  objective. They find qualitative information
  unconvincing and subjective. It is a mistake to
  say that quantitative information speaks for
  itself. It requires just as much interpretation
  in order to make it meaningful as does
  qualitative information. It may be a fact that
  enrolment of girls at schools in some developing
  countries is dropping counting can tell us
  that, but it tells us nothing about why this drop
  is taking place. In order to know that, you would
  need to go out and ask questions to get
  qualitative information. Choice of indicators is
  also subjective, whether you use quantitative or
  qualitative methods to do the actual measuring.
  Researchers choose to measure school enrolment
  figures for girls because they believe that this
  tells them something about how women in a society
  are treated or viewed.

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HOW WILL WE GET INFORMATION?

• The monitoring and evaluation process requires a
  combination of quantitative and qualitative
  information in order to be comprehensive. For
  example, we need to know what the school
  enrolment figures for girls are, as well as why
  parents do or do not send their children to
  school. Perhaps enrolment figures are higher for
  boys than for girls because a particular
  community sees schooling as a luxury and prefers
  to train boys to do traditional and practical
  tasks such taking care of animals. In this case,
  the higher enrolment of girls does not
  necessarily indicate higher regard for girls.
• HOW WILL WE GET INFORMATION?
• This is dealt with in some detail in the toolkit
  on action planning, in the section on monitoring,
  collecting information as you go along. Your
  methods for information collecting need to be
  built into your action planning. You should be
  aiming to have a steady stream of information
  flowing into the project or organisation about
  the work and how it is done, without overloading
  anyone. The information you collect must mean
  something dont collect information to keep
  busy, only do it to find out what you want to
  know, and then make sure that you store the
  information in such a way that it is easy to
  access.

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HOW WILL WE GET INFORMATION? (cont.)

• Usually you can use the reports, minutes,
  attendance registers, financial statements that
  are part of your work anyway as a source of
  monitoring and evaluation information.
• However, sometimes you need to use special tools
  that are simple but useful to add to the basic
  information collected in the natural course of
  your work. Some of the more common ones are
• Case studies
• Recorded observation
• Recording and analysis of important incidents
  (called critical incident analysis)
• Structured questionnaires
• One-on-one interviews
• Focus groups
• Sample surveys
• Systematic review of relevant official
  statistics.

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WHO SHOULD BE INVOLVED?

• Almost everyone in the organisation or project
  will be involved in some way in collecting
  information that can be used in monitoring and
  evaluation. This includes
• The administrator who takes minutes at a meeting
  or prepares and circulates the attendance
  register
• The fieldworkers who writes reports on visits to
  the field
• The bookkeeper who records income and
  expenditure.
• In order to maximise their efforts, the project
  or organisation needs to
• Prepare reporting formats that include
  measurement, either quantitative or qualitative,
  of important indicators. For example, if you want
  to know about community participation in
  activities, or womens participation
  specifically, structure the fieldworkers
  reporting format so that s/he has to comment on
  this, backing up observations with facts.
• Prepare recording formats that include
  measurement, either quantitative or qualitative,
  of important indicators. For example, if you want
  to know how many men and how many women attended
  a meeting, include a gender column on your
  attendance list.

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WHO SHOULD BE INVOLVED? (cont.)

• Record information in such a way that it is
  possible to work out what you need to know. For
  example, if you need to know whether a project is
  sustainable financially, and which elements of it
  cost the most, then make sure that your
  bookkeeping records reflect the relevant
  information.
• It is a useful principle to look at every
  activity and say What do we need to know about
  this activity, both process (how it is being
  done) and product (what it is meant to achieve),
  and what is the easiest way to find it out and
  record it as we go along?
• Designing a monitoring and/or evaluation process
• As there are differences between the design of a
  monitoring system and that of an evaluation
  process, we deal with them separately here.
• Under monitoring we look at the process an
  organisation could go through to design a
  monitoring system.
• Under evaluation we look at Purpose, Key
  evaluation questions and Methodology.

Thank you.