Evaluation Failures 22 Tales of Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned

Evaluation Failures: 22 Tales of Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned is a candid collection of stories from seasoned evaluators from a variety of sectors sharing professional mistakes they have made in the past, and what they learned moving forward. As the only book of its kind, editor Kylie Hutchinson has collected a series of engaging, real-life examples that are both entertaining and informative. Each story offers universal lessons as takeaways, and discussion questions for reflective practice. The book is the perfect companion to anyone working in the evaluation field, and to instructors of program evaluation courses who want to bring the real world into their classroom.

Chapter 1. It’s Not Me, It’s You: The Value of Addressing Conflict Head On
Chapter 2. The Scope Creep Train Wreck: How Responsive Evaluation Can Go Off the Rails
Chapter 3. The Buffalo Jump: Lessons After the Fall
Chapter 4. Evaluator Self-Evaluation: When Self-Flagellation Is Not Enough
Chapter 5. That Alien Feeling: Engaging All Stakeholders in the Universe
Chapter 6. Seeds of Failure: How the Evaluation of a West African Agricultural Scale Up Project Went Awry
Chapter 7. I Didn’t Know I Would Be a Tightrope Walker Someday: Balancing Evaluator Responsiveness and Independence
Chapter 8. When National Pride Is Beyond Facts: Navigating Conflicting Stakeholder Requirements
Chapter 9. Stars in Our Eyes: What Happens When Things Are Too Good to Be True
Chapter 10. A “Failed” Logic Model: How I Learned to Connect With All Stakeholders
Chapter 11. Lost Without You: A Lesson in System Mapping and Engaging Stakeholders
Chapter 12. You Got to Know When to Hold ’Em: An Evaluation That Went From Bad to Worse
Chapter 13. The Evaluation From Hell: When Evaluators and Clients Don’t Quite Fit
Chapter 14. The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Evaluators: Dealing With Data Collection Surprises in the Field
Chapter 15. Are You My Amigo, or My Chero? The Importance of Cultural Competence in Data Collection and Evaluation
Chapter 16. OMG, Why Can’t We Get the Data? A Lesson in Managing Evaluation Expectations
Chapter 17. No, Actually, This Project Has to Stop Now: Learning When to Pull the Plug
Chapter 18. Missing in Action: How Assumptions, Language, History, and Soft Skills Influenced a Cross-Cultural Participatory Evaluation
Chapter 19. “This Is Highly Illogical”: How a Spock Evaluator Learns That Context and Mixed Methods Are Everything
Chapter 20. The Ripple That Became a Splash: The Importance of Context and Why I Now Do Data Parties
Chapter 21. The Voldemort Evaluation: How I Learned to Survive Organizational Dysfunction, Confusion, and Distrust
Chapter 22. The Only Way Out Is Through