Challenging the Boundaries of the Possible: Participation, Knowledge and Power - Gaventa, John; Cornwall, Andrea (IDS Bulletin, 2006)

Deconstructing Adaptive Management: Criteria for Applications to Environmental Management - Gregory, R.; Ohlson, D.; Arvai, J. (Ecological Applications, 2006)
[The concept of adaptive management has, for many ecologists, become a foundation of effective environmental management for initiatives characterized by high levels of ecological uncertainty. Yet problems associated with its application are legendary, and many of the initiatives promoted as examples of adaptive management appear to lack essential characteristics of the approach. In this paper we propose explicit criteria for helping managers and decision makers to determine the appropriateness of either passive or active adaptive-management strategies as a response to ecological uncertainty in environmental management. Four categories of criteria–dealing with spatial and temporal scale, dimensions of uncertainty, the evaluation of costs and benefits, and institutional and stakeholder support–are defined and applied using hypothetical yet realistic case-study scenarios that illustrate a range of environmental management problems. We conclude that many of the issues facing adaptive management may have less to do with the approach itself than with the indiscriminate choice of contexts within which it is now applied.]

Developmental Evaluation - Patton, Michael Quinn (The Nonprofit Quarterly, 2006)

Conflict Sensitive Programme Management: A quick guide - SDC (SDC, 2006)

Conflict-sensitive programme management (CSPM) - SDC (2006)

Multiple case study analysis - Stake, Robert E. (The Guilford Press, 2006)
Examining situational complexity is a vital part of social and behavioral science research. This engaging text provides an effective process for studying multiple cases–such as sets of teachers, staff development sessions, or clinics operating in different locations–within one complex program. The process also can be used to investigate broadly occurring phenomena without programmatic links, such as leadership or sibling rivalry. Readers learn to design, analyze, and report studies that balance common issues across the group of cases with the unique features and context of each case. Three actual case reports from a transnational early childhood program illustrate the author's approach, and helpful reproducible worksheets facilitate multicase recording and analysis.
Keywords: Case method; Cross-cultural studies; Education; Europe; Eastern; Research Methodology; Step by Step (Program)

Horizontal Evaluation: Stimulating social learning among peers - Thiele, G; velasco, C; Manrique, K (2006)
Horizontal evaluation is a flexible evaluation method that combines self-assessment and external review by peers. We have developed and applied this method for use within an Andean regional network that develops new methodologies for research and development (R&D). The involvement of peers neutralizes the lopsided power relations that prevail in traditional external evaluations, creating a more favourable atmosphere for learning and improvement. The central element of a horizontal evaluation is a workshop that brings together a group of ‘local participants’ who are developing a new R&D methodology and a group of ‘visitors’ or ‘peers’ who are also interested in the methodology. The workshop combines presentations about the methodology with field visits, small group work and plenary discussions. It elicits and compares the perceptions of the two groups concerning the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology; it provides practical suggestions for improvement, which may often be put to use immediately; it promotes social learning among the different groups involved; and it stimulates further experimentation with and development of the methodology in other settings.

Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D)-A design challenge? - Tongia, Rahul; Subrahmanian, Eswaran (2006 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, 2006)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

The Samaritan's Dilemma: The Political Economy of Development Aid - Gibson, Clark C.; Andersson, Krister; Ostrom, Elinor; Shivakumar, Sujai (Oxford University Press, 2005)
What's wrong with foreign aid? Many policymakers, aid practitioners, and scholars have called into question its ability to increase economic growth, alleviate poverty, or promote social development. At the macro level, only tenuous links between development aid and improved living conditions have been found. At the micro level, only a few programs outlast donor support and even fewer appear to achieve lasting improvements. The authors of this book argue that much of aid's failure is related to the institutions that structure its delivery. These institutions govern the complex relationships between the main actors in the aid delivery system and often generate a series of perverse incentives that promote inefficient and unsustainable outcomes. In their analysis, the authors apply the theoretical insights of the new institutional economics to several settings. First, they investigate the institutions of Sida, the Swedish aid agency, to analyze how that aid agency's institutions can produce incentives inimical to desired outcomes, contrary to the desires of its own staff. Second, the authors use cases from India, a country with low aid dependence, and Zambia, a country with high aid dependence, to explore how institutions on the ground in recipient countries also mediate the effectiveness of aid. Throughout the book, the authors offer suggestions about how to improve aid's effectiveness. These suggestions include how to structure evaluations in order to improve outcomes, how to employ agency staff to gain from their on-the-ground experience, and how to engage stakeholders as "owners" in the design, resource mobilization, learning, and evaluation processes of development assistance programs.

The Use and Abuse of the Logical Framework Approach: A Review of International Development NGOs' Experiences - Bakewell, Oliver; Garbutt, Anne (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, 2005)
The logical framework approach (LFA) has come to play a central role in the planning and management of development interventions over the last twenty years. Although the logical framework has become universally known, it is far from universally liked. It has been the subject of much criticism over the years, concerning both the theoretical basis of the approach, and the way it is applied in practice. In this review, we have attempted to take stock of the current views of international development NGOs on the LFA and the ways in which they use it.

Rapid Results!: How 100-Day Projects Build the Capacity for Large-Scale Change - Schaffer, Robert H.; Ashkenas, Ron (Jossey-Bass, 2005)
Rapid Results! shows how to make large-scale changes succeed by using 100-day results-producing projects to develop this vital implementation capability. Written by Robert H. Schaffer, Ronald N. Ashkenas, and their associates—leaders in the field of change management—Rapid Results! describes an approach that has been field-tested by real organizations of every size and description to improve performance and speed the pace of change. Rapid results projects produce results quickly, introduce new work patterns, and enable participants to learn a variety of lessons about managing change. Step by step, the book describes how the use of rapid-cycle, or 100-day, projects will multiply your organization’s power to succeed at large-scale change. Schaffer and Ashkenas specifically outline the concept behind 100-day projects and show you how to Set up the architecture to implement rapid results projects Improve operational performance and also attain hard results in the soft areas of management Build rapid results into major organizational change such as reorganization, acquisition integration, and international development Use rapid results to drive leadership development and culture change

Why Software Fails - We waste billions of dollars each year on entirely preventable mistakes - Robert N., Charette (IEEE Spectrum, 2005)
We waste billions of dollars each year on entirely preventable mistakes. The biggest tragedy is that software failure is for the most part predictable and avoidable. Unfortunately, most organizations don't see preventing failure as an urgent matter, even though that view risks harming the organization and maybe even destroying it. Understanding why this attitude persists is not just an academic exercise; it has tremendous implications for business and society.
Section: Computing

Management challenges to implementing agile processes in traditional development organizations - Boehm, B.; Turner, R. (IEEE Software, 2005)
Discussions with traditional developers and managers concerning agile software development practices nearly always contain two somewhat contradictory ideas. They find that on small, stand-alone projects, agile practices are less burdensome and more in tune with the software industry's increasing needs for rapid development and coping with continuous change. Managers face several barriers, real and perceived, when they try to bring agile approaches into traditional organizations. They categorized the barriers either as problems only in terms of scope or scale, or as significant general issues needing resolution. From these two categories, we've identified three areas - development process conflicts, business process conflicts, and people conflicts - that we believe are the critical challenges to software managers of large organizations in bringing agile approaches to bear in their projects.
Keywords: Aerospace engineering; Aerospace materials; Agile methods; Agile software development; Automatic testing; Business processes; Computer industry; DP industry; Programming; Project management; Refining; Software engineering; Software management; Software systems; development process conflicts; process integration; software development management; software industry; systems engineering; traditional development organizations

Learning in the Thick of It - Darling, Marilyn; Parry, Charles; Moore, Joseph (Harvard Business Review, 2005)
After-action reviews identify past mistakes but rarely enhance future performance. Companies wanting to fully exploit this tool should look to its master: the U.S. Army’s standing enemy brigade, where soldiers learn and improve even in the midst of battle.
Section: Meeting management
Keywords: Aerospace sector; Corporate governance; Decision making and problem solving; Defense industry; Defense sector; Fabrication and manufacturing; Meeting management; Military; North America; Organizational culture; Presentation skills; Project management; Psychology; Telecom

Appreciative Inquiry: An approach for learning and change based on our own best practices​ - Acosta, Anne; Douthwaite, Boru (Institute of Learning and Change, 2005)
Since it was conceptualized in the late 1980s as a research methodology and change paradigm, the technique of ‘appreciative inquiry’ (AI) has proved to be highly effective for capturing the positive features of an organization or social system and energizing the members to strive for higher levels of performance. This Brief outlines the basic principles and methods of AI, describes various domains in which it has been undertaken and provides a recent example of its use in a centre affiliated with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

Ideas for Development - Chambers, Robert (Routledge, 2005)
Our world seems entangled in systems increasingly dominated by power, greed, ignorance, self-deception and denial, with spiralling inequity and injustice. Against a backdrop of climate change, failing ecosystems, poverty, crushing debt and corporate exploitation, the future of our world looks dire and the solutions almost too monumental to consider. Yet all is not lost. Robert Chambers, one of the ?glass is half full? optimists of international development, suggests that the problems can be solved and everyone has the power at a personal level to take action, develop solutions and remake our world as it can and should be. Chambers peels apart and analyses aspects of development that have been neglected or misunderstood. In each chapter, he presents an earlier writing which he then reviews and reflects upon in a contemporary light before harvesting a wealth of powerful conclusions and practical implications for the future. The book draws on experiences from Africa, Asia and elsewhere, covering topics and concepts as wide and varied as irreversibility, continuity and commitment; administrative capacity as a scarce resource; procedures and principles; participation in the past, present and future; scaling up; behaviour and attitudes; responsible wellbeing; and concepts for development in the 21st century.

Your Company’s Secret Change Agents - Pascale, Richard T.; Sternin, Jerry (Harvard Business Review, 2005)
Somewhere in your organization, groups of people are already doing things differently and better. To create lasting change, find these areas of positive deviance and fan their flames.

Accountability Myopia: Losing Sight of Organizational Learning - Ebrahim, Alnoor (Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 2005)
This article challenges a normative assumption about accountability in organizations: that more accountability is necessarily better. More specifically, it examines two forms of “myopia” that characterize conceptions of accountability among service-oriented nonprofit organizations: (a) accountability as a set of unconnected binary relationships rather than as a system of relations and (b) accountability as short-term and rule-following behavior rather than as a means to longer-term social change. The article explores the effects of these myopias on a central mechanism of accountability in organizations—evaluation—and proposes a broader view of accountability that includes organizational learning. Future directions for research and practice are elaborated.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Organisational Learning in NGOs: Creating the motive, means and opportunity - Britton, Bruce (Intrac, 2005)
OCLC: 474871294

Performance Story - Dart, J.; Mayne, J. (Encyclopedia of Evaluation, 2005)
This is a concise description of ‘Performance Story’ written by Jess Dart and John Mayne for the Sage ‘Encyclopaedia of Evaluation’.

The 'Most Significant Change' (MSC) Technique - Davies, Rick; Dart, Jess (CARE International, 2005)
This publication is aimed at organisations, community groups, students and academics who wish to use MSC to help monitor and evaluate their social change programs and projects, or to learn more about how it can be used. The technique is applicable in many different sectors, including agriculture, education and health, and especially in development programs. It is also applicable to many different cultural contexts. MSC has been used in a wide variety of countries by a range of organisations. By 2004, MSC had been used both by NGOs and governments in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and Australasia.

Innovation histories: A method from learning from experience - Douthwaite, B; Ashby, J (2005)
Preparing an ‘innovation history’ is a method for recording and reflecting on an innovation process. People who have been involved in the innovation jointly construct a detailed written account (sometimes referred to as a ‘learning history’) based on their recollections and on available documents. The process of preparing this history stimulates discussion, reflection and learning amongst stakeholders. Subsequent planning can build on the lessons learned, formulate a shared vision and act as a catalyst for change. Based on the initial detailed account of the innovation process, more concise informational products can be prepared that summarize the innovation process for wider dissemination of findings. These may include public awareness materials, policy briefs or articles in professional journals.

Donors' Learning Difficulties: Results, Relationships and Responsibilities - Eyben, Rosalind (IDS Bulletin, 2005)

Process Monitoring of Impacts: Towards a new approach to monitor the implementation of Structural Fund Programmes - Hummelbrunner, Richard; Huber, Wolf; Arbter, Roland (ÖAR Regionalberatung, 2005)

Is your evidence robust enough? Questions for policy makers and practitioners - Shaxson, Louise (Evidence & Policy: A Journal of Research, Debate and Practice, 2005)
This article examines the reasons we need evidence for policy, discusses where evidence is needed in the policy-making process, and the nature of the evidence base for strategy and policy. Working relationships between policy makers and their advisers are key: as policy makers come from a variety of backgrounds, developing a common language helps set discussions about the robustness of the evidence base on a sound footing. The article identifies five components of robustness, proposes a series of questions that could be used to address them and discusses the implications for the processes of policy making.

Outcome mapping: A method for tracking behavioural changes in development programs - Smutylo, Terry (2005)
This guide published by the Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) Initiative provides a detailed overview of using outcome mapping as an evaluation tool. Contents Expressing results as changes in behaviour Outcome mapping terms The three stages of outcome mapping Figure 1. The three stages and twelve steps of outcome mapping Stage 1. Intentional design Figure 2. The four basic questions of the intentional design stage Stage 2. Outcome and performance monitoring Stage 3. Evaluation planning Using outcome mapping The Ceja Andina Project The Agro-industry and Market Development project for Arracacha

Adaptive management of natural resources: theory, concepts, and management institutions. - Stankey, George H.; Clark, Roger N.; Bormann, Bernard T. (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, 2005)
This report reviews the extensive and growing literature on the concept and application of adaptive management. Adaptive management is a central element of the Northwest Forest Plan and there is a need for an informed understanding of the key theories, concepts, and frameworks upon which it is founded. Literature from a diverse range of ﬁelds including social learning, risk and uncertainty, and institutional analysis was reviewed, particularly as it related to application in an adaptive management context. The review identiﬁes opportunities as well as barriers that adaptive management faces. It concludes by describing steps that must be taken to implement adaptive management.

A mini-primer of critical systems heuristics. - Ulrich, W. (2005)
"Critical Systems Heuristics," also just called "Critical Heuristics" or "CSH," is a framework for reflective practice based on practical philosophy and systems thinking. The basic idea of CSH is to support boundary critique – a systematic effort of handling boundary judgments critically. Boundary judgments determine which empirical observations and value considerations count as relevant and which others are left out or are considered less important. Because they condition both "facts" and "values," boundary judgments play an essential role when it comes to assessing the meaning and merits of a claim. Their systematic discussion can help bridge differences of perspectives across disciplines and between experts and non-experts. They also lend themselves to a specific critical employment, called emancipatory boundary critique, against claims that do not uncover their underlying boundary assumptions. CSH can thus serve as a tool for coproducing knowledge as well as for critical and emancipatory purposes on the part of people concerned by, but not necessarily involved in, the definition of relevant facts and values.

A Brief Introduction to Critical Systems Heuristics (CSH) - Ulrich, Werner (2005)

The power of positive deviance - Marsh, David R; Schroeder, Dirk G; Dearden, Kirk A; Sternin, Jerry; Sternin, Monique (BMJ : British Medical Journal, 2004)
Identifying individuals with better outcome than their peers (positive deviance) and enabling communities to adopt the behaviours that explain the improved outcome are powerful methods of producing change

Democratic governance and evaluation. - Hanberger, A. (2004)
This paper, presented by Anders Hanberger at the Sixth EES (European Evaluation Society) Conference in Berlin, Germany (September 30-October 2, 2004) argues that governance, democracy and evaluation impact each in different ways. It offers a discussion centred around the evaluation of three general democratic governance models and the implications of leading democratic evaluations. "Since governance and democracy are changing phenomena, and evaluation is embedded in these structures, there is a need to illuminate and discuss the role of evaluation. Evaluation is to most people thought of as a democratic tool, but what do we mean with democratic evaluation? Furthermore, what is the role of evaluation in times when democracy and governance are changing? The many meanings of democracy and the shifting role of evaluation in various democratic governance settings are also a motive for discussing governance and democratic evaluation. Governance issues can be discussed in relation to different political systems. However, in this paper the discussion is confined to democratic governance systems. The premise of this paper is that governance, democracy and evaluation affect one another in different ways. Governance is intertwined with democracy, and democracy and governance can be maintained or strengthened by evaluation, for example. Because different models of governance and democracy presuppose one another, evaluating governance models, or programme processes/outcomes where a specific governance model sets up the context, have implications for the model under scrutiny and subsequently for democracy. Accordingly, the implications of democratic evaluations need to be discussed in various ways. For analytical purpose democracy and governance are sometimes kept apart." (Hanberger, 2004)​

A Treatise on Efficacy: Between Western and Chinese Thinking - Jullien, Francois (University of Hawaii Press, 2004)
In this highly insightful analysis of Western and Chinese concepts of efficacy, Francois Jullien subtly delves into the metaphysical preconceptions of the two civilizations to account for diverging patterns of action in warfare, politics, and diplomacy. He shows how Western and Chinese stategies work in several domains (the battle-field, for example) and analyzes two resulting acts of war. The Chinese strategist manipulates his own troops and the enemy to win a battle without waging war and to bring about victory effortlessly. Efficacity in China is thus conceived of in terms of transformation (as opposed to action) and manipulation, making it closer to what is understood as efficacy in the West. Jullien's brilliant interpretations of an array of recondite texts are key to understanding our own conceptions of action, time, and reality in this foray into the world of Chinese thought. In its clear and penetrating characterization of two contrasting views of reality from a heretofore unexplored perspective, Treatise on Efficacy will be of central importance in the intellectual debate between East and West.

Complexity, Organizations and Change - McMillan, Elizabeth (Routledge, 2004)
Complexity science has seriously challenged long-held views in the scientific community about how the world works. These ideas, particularly about the living world, also have radical and profound implications for organizations and society as a whole. Available in paperback for the first time, this insightful book describes and considers ideas from complexity science and examines their use in organizations, especially in bringing about major organizational change. Author McMillan explores how organizations, their design, the way they operate and, importantly, the people who co-create them, are thought of.Explaining the history and development of complexity science in an accessible way for the non-scientific reader, this outstanding book describes key concepts and their use in theory and practice. Illustrated with real-life examples from organizations in the UK, Europe and the USA, the book includes an in-depth case study of an organization which used complexity principles as part of a strategic change intervention. From this, useful models for introducing a complexity-based change process are derived.Complexity, Organizations and Change will appeal to academics, researchers and advanced students who are interested in complexity science and what it means for strategy, organization and management theory and organizational change.

Being Spherical: Reshaping Our Lives and Our World for the 21st Century - Lawson, Phil; Lindstrom, Robert L. (Sphericity Press, 2004)
In this concise, illustrated work exploring the dynamics of living in the 21st century, Phil Lawson and Robert L. Lindstrom show us how we individually and collectively shape the future - a future no longer dominated by traditional hierarchies and concentrated power centers. The authors explain why, in this dawning era of interconnection and interdependency, we require a dramatic transformation in the way we see, think and act. Using mythological imagery in the form of The Sphere and an innovative and adaptive vocabulary, they introduce us to concepts and processes for reshaping our lives, our organizations and our world for the better. In addition, they introduce the Spherical Modeling Tool (SMT), a practical hands-on awareness application. BEING SPHERICAL GUIDES US AS WE LEARN TO: * Prepare for a future we cannot even vaguely predict. * Raise our children well in a climate of moral uncertainty. * Create viable organizations in an era of extreme complexity. * Come to the aid of an abused and ailing planet. AS WE LEARN TO SEE THE SPHERE WE: * Understand why we do what we do and what to do differently. * Discover creative solutions to longstanding problems. * Connect and reconnect within ourselves and with others. * Ready ourselves of quantum leaps in inspiration and awareness. THE GREATER OUR SPHERICAL INTEGRITY THE BETTER WE: * Flex with internal and external pressures. * Adapt to disorienting and accelerating change. * Respond to unpredictable and uncontrollable conditions. * Roll through hard times and bounce forward from adversity. Excerpted from Being Spherical: Reshaping Our Lives and Our World for the 21st Century by Phil Lawson, Robert L. Lindstrom. Copyright 2004. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer - Liker, Jeffrey K. (McGraw-Hill, 2004)
How to speed up business processes, improve quality, and cut costs in any industryIn factories around the world, Toyota consistently makes the highest-quality cars with the fewest defects of any competing manufacturer, while using fewer man-hours, less on-hand inventory, and half the floor space of its competitors. The Toyota Way is the first book for a general audience that explains the management principles and business philosophy behind Toyota's worldwide reputation for quality and reliability.Complete with profiles of organizations that have successfully adopted Toyota's principles, this book shows managers in every industry how to improve business processes by:Eliminating wasted time and resources Building quality into workplace systems Finding low-cost but reliable alternatives to expensive new technology Producing in small quantities Turning every employee into a quality control inspector

3. Reflections and directions: a personal note - Chambers, Robert (Participatory Learning and Action 50: Critical reflections, future directions, 2004)

System Failure: Why Governments Must Learn to Think Differently - Chapman, Jake (Demos, 2004)
The current model of public policy-making is no longer right for a government that has set itself the challenge of delivery. Improvements are driven by central policy initiatives which assume a direct relationship between action and outcome - but this is a false assumption. Public services are complex adaptive systems which are subject to the law of unintended consequences, so intervention can make problems worse. That is why the carrot-and-stick approach to reform which links increased funding to tougher performance targets will not succeed in the long run. Renowned systems thinker Jake Chapman describes how government's energetic attempts to force change from the centre are becoming counter-productive. The alternative is government based on continuous learning. This is increasingly important as the impact of communication technology and other accelerating social trends offers a moving target for public service reformers. Systems thinking offers a better model for change in complex organisations such as the health service or the railway network. Case studies provided by the NHS confederation show the unintended and often bizarre consequences of introducing new policies without considering their impact on the whole system. Since the original publication of Systems Failure in 2002, many of its core ideas have been taken on by government. In this second edition, Chapman reflects on the experience of putting systems thinking into practice in public services, and explains why the changes he suggests are more difficult - and more urgent - than expected.

Spherit - Contextual reasoning maps - ContextSpheres.com (ContextSpheres.com, 2004)
Spherit is a whole view technology system that streamlines meaning making, solutioning, and action taking in business, healthcare, relationships, and life in general, by displaying complex situation-specific topics in context on a customizable conversation map. When the Spherit system is activated it generates and displays a snapshot of any complex situation in a way that makes it digestible, while engaging our intellect and our intuition in the reflecting and meaning-making process. It's a unifying visual learning system that communicates information in a non-linear graphical format. It works for individuals, teams and organizations. It has a "share and compare" feature that fast-tracks conversations between individuals or groups. And it offers powerful metrics.

17. Shifting perceptions, changing practices in PRA: from infinite innovation to the quest for quality - Cornwall, Andrea; Guijt, Irene (Participatory Learning and Action 50: Critical reflections, future directions, 2004)
In the beginning, there were methods. For many of us in the circle of enthusiasts of participatory approaches in the early 1990s, maps and models, calendars and Venn diagrams, matrices and rankings and the interactions and insights they produced defined what we did and what we had in common. It was this, too, that made participatory rural appraisal (PRA) – and rapid rural appraisal (RRA) before it – something that was very different from anything we’d known before. PRA bridged barriers that might otherwise have kept a social anthropologist and an irrigation engineer like us apart. And it brought us together with dozens of others, from a constellation of disciplines and professions, who shared our excitement about an approach that seemed to offer much for ‘doing development’ differently. In 1995, we co-edited PLA Notes 24 on Critical reflections on practice, in which we sought to engage practitioners and advocates in debate about the looming crises of quality that were to become so much a feature of PRA practice in the later 1990s. In this paper, we look back over more than a decade of engagement with PRA as ‘critical insiders’. Participatory Learning and Action has, naturally enough, served more as a vehicle for practitioners to share their successes and innovations than their critical reflections. Accordingly, we draw here on sources that go beyond it, including reflections from the Pathways to Participation project (see Cornwall and Pratt, 2003a, in PLA Notes 47, and contributions to Cornwall and Pratt 2003b), from work with gender and participatory development (Welbourn, 1992; Guijt and Kaul Shah, 1998; Cornwall 2000), and from the lively debates that we have had for more than a decade with colleagues the world over. These thoughts are our personal reflections, from standpoints associated with the two institutions – IIED and IDS – that were so much part of early efforts to promote and institutionalise PRA in international development practice. Our account is, therefore, very much a partial one. We offer it here as a means of locating some of the threads that have run through debates about PRA since the first issues of Participatory Learning and Action, and some of the challenges that practitioners of participatory learning and action methodologies continue to face. In it, we reflect on distinct phases in the development of PRA (see Figure 1), during which a series of issues emerged as themes for critical reflection. The phases indicated in the diagram relate generally to the prevailing sentiment and practice. Clearly there are exceptions – there have been critical voices and some were using PRA to address issues of power from day one, just as there is still innovation and excitement in some quarters today.

ALPS in action: a review of the shift in ActionAid towards a new Accountability, Learning and Planning System | Participatory Methods - Guijt, Irene (2004)

QUIP: Understanding clients through in-depth interviews - IMP-ACT (Institute of Development Studies, 2004)
This Practice Note by Imp-Act gives a step-by-step guide to developing and conducting in-depth interviews using the QUIP approach, and analysing the information and making conclusions based on what you have learned.

Dao De Jing - Laozi (University of California Press, 2004)
Dao De Jing is one of the richest, most suggestive, and most popular works of philosophy and literature. Composed in China between the late sixth and the late fourth centuries b.c., its enigmatic verses have inspired artists, philosophers, poets, religious thinkers, and general readers down to our own times. This new translation, both revelatory and authentic, captures much of the beauty and nuance of the original work. In an extensive and accessible commentary to his translation, Moss Roberts reveals new depths of Dao De Jing.This edition is distinguished by the literary quality of the translation, its new renderings for a number of the stanzas, and by Roberts's knowledgeable contextualizations. Utilizing recently discovered manuscripts and Chinese scholarship based on them, he is able to shed new light on the work's historical and philosophical contexts. This translation shows that Dao De Jing is far more than a work of personal inspiration; it is also a work of universal scope that makes penetrating comments on politics, statecraft, cosmology, aesthetics, and ethics. Roberts brings these themes to our attention, shows how they are integrated into the work as a whole, and demonstrates the relevance of these topics for our own times.

Realist Evaluation - Pawson, Ray; Tilley, Nick (2004)
Contents: Introduction 1. The nature of programmes and how they work 2. Basic concepts in the explanation and understanding of programmes 3. Strategies and methods of realist evaluation 4. Realism’s place in the policy cycle: formative, summative and synthetic approaches 5. The nature, presentation and use of findings from realist evaluation 6. Conclusion: strengths, limitations and relationships with other approaches Appendix I – ‘Thinking it through’: an exercise in realist hypothesis making. Appendix II – ‘Varieties of realist evaluation’: pocket illustrations of quantitative, qualitative, formative and synthetic applications. Appendix III – ‘Would it work here?’: a grid to help decide on the feasibility of mounting a programme ‘on your patch’.

Participatory approaches: a facilitator's guide - VSO (VSO, 2004)
This book provides a set of guidelines for people who will be involved in participatory processes and projects with specific design focus on VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas) volunteers. It looks at appropriate levels of participation; pitfalls of participatory approaches (PA); best practice in facilitation; and tools for participation. The guide is organised into three parts (I) Principles, (II) Methods and (III) Toolkit. Part I gives a background to PA with a comparative analysis of PA in relation to top-down approaches, and within the range of PAs; looks at the role PA in VSO; discusses how to facilitate participatory processes with multiple stakeholders; presents a framework for PA on different levels of participation; and examines key facilitation skills needed to support participatory activities. Part II collates a range of participatory methods that have been used successfully in the field by VSO volunteers. Methods are categorised according to this suitability for use at different stages of a project process. Examples are also given of methods that can be used for specific purposes, such as participatory organisational appraisal and gender/diversity analysis. Part III gives tips on how to choose the most appropriate tool and how to organise participatory workshops and small group activities. It also systematically records a range of tools used by development workers all over the world with reference to what tool is appropriate in what situation. A profile of each tool includes guidelines on its purpose, potential applications and variations, as well as possible pitfalls. Illustrative case studies taken form real experiences of development workers in the field are also included.

The precautionary principle: protecting public health, the environment and the future of our children - World Health Organization (World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe, 2004)
OCLC: 551147957

Participation and accountability in development management - Brett, E. A. (The Journal of Development Studies, 2003)
This article critically reviews the role of participatory theory in managing development projects and programmes in poor countries. Participation has emerged in response to global demands for greater individual and social control over the activities of state and private agencies, and especially to the manifest failures of traditional ‘top-down’ management systems in LDCs. Claims made on behalf of these participatory methodologies are critically reviewed and a distinction is drawn between strong and weak versions of the theory. Empirical evidence is then considered to evaluate the effectiveness of these methodologies, using long-standing insights of social science theory to show that participation can succeed for specific kinds of projects and programmes in favourable circumstances, but is unsuitable for many others. It commonly fails in contexts where local conditions make co-operative and collective action very difficult, or where it is manipulated by implementing agencies to justify their own actions or poor performance.

Recipes for Public Spheres: Eight Institutional Design Choices and Their Consequences - Fung, Archon (Journal of Political Philosophy, 2003)

Diffusion of Innovations, 5th Edition - Rogers, Everett M. (Free Press, 2003)
Now in its fifth edition, Diffusion of Innovations is a classic work on the spread of new ideas.In this renowned book, Everett M. Rogers, professor and chair of the Department of Communication & Journalism at the University of New Mexico, explains how new ideas spread via communication channels over time. Such innovations are initially perceived as uncertain and even risky. To overcome this uncertainty, most people seek out others like themselves who have already adopted the new idea. Thus the diffusion process consists of a few individuals who first adopt an innovation, then spread the word among their circle of acquaintances—a process which typically takes months or years. But there are exceptions: use of the Internet in the 1990s, for example, may have spread more rapidly than any other innovation in the history of humankind. Furthermore, the Internet is changing the very nature of diffusion by decreasing the importance of physical distance between people. The fifth edition addresses the spread of the Internet, and how it has transformed the way human beings communicate and adopt new ideas.

Knowledge Networks: Innovation Through Communities of Practice - Hildreth, Paul; Kimble, Chris (IGI Global, 2003)
Knowledge Networks: Innovations Through Communities of Practice draws on the experience of people who have worked with CoPs in the real world and to present their combined wisdom in a form that is accessible to a wide audience. CoPs are examined from a practical, rather than a purely academic point of view. The book also examines the benefits that CoPs can bring to an organization, provides a number of case studies, lessons learned and sets of guidelines. It also looks at virtual CoPs and to the future by asking 'what next?' This book is a resource for all people who work with CoPs - both in academia and in the real world.

Evidence, hierarchies, and typologies: horses for courses - Petticrew, M; Roberts, H (Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2003)
Debate is ongoing about the nature and use of evidence in public health decision making, and there seems to be an emerging consensus that the "hierarchy of evidence" may be difficult to apply in other settings. It may be unhelpful however to simply abandon the hierarchy without having a framework or guide to replace it. One such framework is discussed. This is based around a matrix, and emphasises the need to match research questions to specific types of research. This emphasis on methodological appropriateness, and on typologies rather than hierarchies of evidence may be helpful in organising and appraising public health evidence.
Keywords: Decision Making; Policy making; Public Health; Public policy

Iterative and incremental developments: A brief history - Larman, Craig; Basili, Victor R. (Computer, 2003)
Although many view iterative and incremental development as a modern practice, its application dates as far back as the mid-1950s. Prominent software-engineering thought leaders from each succeeding decade supported IID practices, and many large projects used them successfully. These practices may have differed in their details, but all had a common theme-to avoid a single-pass sequential, document-driven, gated-step approach.
Keywords: Agile methods; Application software; Feedback; Government; History; Iterative and incremental developments; Iterative methods; Personnel; Programming; Radio access networks; Terminology; Testing; iterative enhancement; software engineering; software system

The high cost of accurate knowledge - Sutcliffe, Kathleen M.; Weber, Klaus (Harvard Business Review, 2003)
Many business thinkers believe it's the role of senior managers to scan the external environment to monitor contingencies and constraints, and to use that precise knowledge to modify the company's strategy and design. As these thinkers see it, managers need accurate and abundant information to carry out that role. According to that logic, it makes sense to invest heavily in systems for collecting and organizing competitive information. Another school of pundits contends that, since today's complex information often isn't precise anyway, it's not worth going overboard with such investments. In other words, it's not the accuracy and abundance of information that should matter most to top executives–rather, it's how that information is interpreted. After all, the role of senior managers isn't just to make decisions; it's to set direction and motivate others in the face of ambiguities and conflicting demands. Top executives must interpret information and communicate those interpretations–they must manage meaning more than they must manage information. So which of these competing views is the right one? Research conducted by academics Sutcliffe and Weber found that how accurate senior executives are about their competitive environments is indeed less important for strategy and corresponding organizational changes than the way in which they interpret information about their environments. Investments in shaping those interpretations, therefore, may create a more durable competitive advantage than investments in obtaining and organizing more information. And what kinds of interpretations are most closely linked with high performance? Their research suggests that high performers respond positively to opportunities, yet they aren't overconfident in their abilities to take advantage of those opportunities.
Keywords: Administrative Personnel; Data Collection; Decision Making; Organizational; Economic Competition; Information Management; Investments; Marketing; Organizational Innovation; United States

Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages - Perez, Carlota (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, 2003)
Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital presents a novel interpretation of the good and bad times in the economy, taking a long-term perspective and linking technology and finance in an original and convincing way. Carlota Perez draws upon Schumpeter's theories of the clustering of innovations to explain why each technological revolution gives rise to a paradigm shift and a 'New Economy' and how these 'opportunity explosions', focused on specific industries, also lead to the recurrence of financial bubbles and crises. These findings are illustrated with examples from the past two centuries: the industrial revolution, the age of steam and railways, the age of steel and electricity, the emergence of mass production and automobiles, and the current information revolution/knowledge society. By analyzing the changing relationship between finance capital and production capital during the emergence, diffusion and assimilation of new technologies throughout the global economic system, this seminal book sheds new light on some of the most pressing economic problems of today. A bold interpretation of how the changing relationship between technological advances and financial capital shapes the patterns of economic cycles, this path-breaking book will provide essential insights for business leaders, policymakers, academics and others concerned with managing change in the world economy.

Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance - Fung, Archon; Wright, Erik Olin (Verso, 2003)
ENTRADA CREADA PARA PODER CITAR EL CAPÍTULO

Most egovernment-for-development projects fail: how can risks be reduced? - Heeks, Richard (Institute for Development Policy and Management, 2003)
Research on the Information Society, the Digital Divide and Information and Communication Technologies for development

The new dynamics of strategy: Sense-making in a complex and complicated world - Kurtz, C.F.; Snowden, Dave (IBM Systems Journal, 2003)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

A Review and Critique of Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation Theory as it Applies to Organizations - Lundblad, Jennifer P. (Organization Development Journal, 2003)
Num Pages: 50-64 Place: Chesterland, United States

Adaptive Impact Management: An Integrative Approach to Wildlife Management - Riley, Shawn; Siemer, William; Decker, Daniel; Carpenter, Len; Organ, John; Berchielli, Louis (Human Dimensions of Wildlife, 2003)

Development and the Learning Organization - Roper, Laura; Pettit, Jethro; Eade, Deborah (Oxfam Publications, 2003)

Affordances Explained - Scarantino, Andrea (Philosophy of Science, 2003)
I examine the central theoretical construct of ecological psychology, the concept of an affordance. In the first part of the paper, I illustrate the role affordances play in Gibson's theory of perception. In the second part, I argue that affordances are to be understood as dispositional properties, and explain what I take to be their characteristic background circumstances, triggering circumstances and manifestations. The main purpose of my analysis is to give affordances a theoretical identity enriched by Gibson's visionary insight, but independent of the most controversial claims of the Gibsonian movement.

Should development agencies have official views? - Ellerman, David (Development in Practice, 2002)

Development and the Learning Organisation: An introduction - Roper, Laura; Pettit, Jethro (Development in Practice, 2002)

The struggle for organisational change: how the ActionAid Accountability, Learning and Planning System emerged - Scott-Villiers, Patta (Policy & Practice, 2002)
Change is driven not only by good ideas, but also by disagreement and frustration. This article takes the reader through a selective organisational history of the British NGO ActionAid from 1998 to 2001, looking at events and changes that had a bearing on the

Beneficiary Assessment: An Approach Described - Salmen, Lawrence (World Bank, 2002)
Beneficiary assessment is a tool for managers who wish to improve the quality of development operations. This is an approach to information gathering which assesses the value of an activity as it is perceived by its principal users. The approach is qualitative in that it attempts to derive understanding from shared experience as well as observation, and gives primacy to the centrality of the other person’s point of view. As the Bank and others engaged in development activities seek to do their work better, one key indicator will need to be how the ultimate customer, or intended beneficiary, assesses the value of this work, project or policy, as it affects his or her life. The illumination of how an intended beneficiary appreciates a planned or ongoing developmental activity is the primary objective of this approach. Beneficiary assessment is a systematic inquiry into people’s values and behavior in relation to a planned or ongoing intervention for social and economic change. This method draws heavily from the tradition in social science known as "qualitative research...that fundamentally depends on watching people in their own territory and interacting with them in their own language, on their own terms" (Kirk and Miller). Yet beneficiary assessment also includes direct observation, incorporating simple counting, and is expressed in quantitative terms. The ultimate goal of beneficiary assessment is to reveal the meaning people give to particular aspects of their lives so that development activities may better enhance people’s ability to improve their own living conditions, as they see fit. This demands close rapport between the practitioner of this approach, the beneficiary and the development manager. The beneficiary assessment approach is not intended to supplant the questionnaire survey but to provide reliable qualitative, indepth information on the socio-cultural conditions of a beneficiary population which is intended to be of immediate use to managers and policymakers responsible for improving people’s lives.

Information Systems and Developing Countries: Failure, Success, and Local Improvisations - Heeks, Richard (The Information Society, 2002)
This article presents evidence that–alongside the successes– many information systems in developing countries can be categorized as failing either totally or partially. It then develops a new model that seeks to explain the high rates of failure. The model draws on contingency theory in order to advance the notion of design-actuality gaps: the match or mismatch between IS designs and local user actuality. This helps identify two high-risk archetypes that affect IS in developing countries: country context gaps and hard-soft gaps. The model is also of value in explaining the constraints that exist to local IS improvisations in developing countries. Overall, the article shows how model and theory help understand IS cases in developing countries, and equally, how those cases provide valuable data to help develop IS models and theories.
Keywords: Developing Country; Evaluation; Failure; Information System; implementation

Enabling Innovation: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Fostering Technological Change - Douthwaite, M. B. (Zed Books, 2002)
Enabling Innovation is an engrossing look at some of the disaster—and success—stories surrounding technological development and diffusion in industrialized and developing countries. The book tells the story of widely divergent technologies—agricultural appliances, wind turbines, Green Revolution high yielding seeds, the Linux computer operating system, and Local Economic Trading Systems. Boru Douthwaite has constructed a "how to do it" guide to innovation management that runs counter to so many current "top-down", "big is good", and "private sector is best" assumptions.
Google-Books-ID: QRwvkEwrWwAC
Keywords: Political science

Failure, Success and Improvisation of Information Systems Projects in Developing Countries - Heeks, Richard (Institute for Development Policy and Management, 2002)
Research on the Information Society, the Digital Divide and Information and Communication Technologies for development

A trainer's guide for participatory learning and action - Pretty, Jules; Guijt, Irene (2002)

Complex Systems Theory and Development Practice: Understanding Non-linear Realities - Rihani, Samir (Zed Books, 2002)
Here, for the first time, development studies encounters the set of ideas popularly known as 'Chaos Theory'. Samir Rihani applies to the processes of economic development, ideas from complex adaptive systems like uncertainty, complexity, and unpredictability. Rihani examines various aspects of the development process - including the World Bank, debt, and the struggle against poverty - and demonstrates the limitations of fundamentally linear thinking in an essentially non-linear world.
Keywords: Business & Economics / Development / Business Development; Business & Economics / Development / Economic Development; Business & Economics / Economic History; Business & Economics / Economics / General; Philosophy / General; Science / System Theory; Social Science / Developing & Emerging Countries

The Blind Man and the Elephant: Analysing the Local State in China - Saich, Tony (On the Roots of Growth and Crisis: Capitalism, State and Society in East Asia, 2002)

Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge - Wenger, Etienne; McDermott, Richard Arnold; Snyder, William (Harvard Business Press, 2002)
Today's marketplace is fueled by knowledge. Yet organizing systematically to leverage knowledge remains a challenge. Leading companies have discovered that technology is not enough, and that cultivating communities of practice is the keystone of an effective knowledge strategy.Communities of practice come together around common interests and expertise- whether they consist of first-line managers or customer service representatives, neurosurgeons or software programmers, city managers or home-improvement amateurs. They create, share, and apply knowledge within and across the boundaries of teams, business units, and even entire companies-providing a concrete path toward creating a true knowledge organization.In Cultivating Communities of Practice, Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder argue that while communities form naturally, organizations need to become more proactive and systematic about developing and integrating them into their strategy. This book provides practical models and methods for stewarding these communities to reach their full potential-without squelching the inner drive that makes them so valuable.Through in-depth cases from firms such as DaimlerChrysler, McKinsey & Company, Shell, and the World Bank, the authors demonstrate how communities of practice can be leveraged to drive overall company strategy, generate new business opportunities, tie personal development to corporate goals, transfer best practices, and recruit and retain top talent. They define the unique features of these communities and outline principles for nurturing their essential elements. They provide guidelines to support communities of practice through their major stages of development, address the potential downsides of communities, and discuss the specific challenges of distributed communities. And they show how to recognize the value created by communities of practice and how to build a corporate knowledge strategy around them.Essential reading for any leader in today's knowledge economy, this is the definitive guide to developing communities of practice for the benefit-and long-term success-of organizations and the individuals who work in them.Etienne Wenger is a renowned expert and consultant on knowledge management and communities of practice in San Juan, California. Richard McDermott is a leading expert of organization and community development in Boulder, Colorado. William M. Snyder is a founding partner of Social Capital Group, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Google-Books-ID: m1xZuNq9RygC

Supporting Pioneering Leaders as Communities of Practice - How to Rapidly Develop New Leaders in Great Numbers - Wheatley, Margaret J (The Berkana Institute, 2002)
Do you ever stand back and try to see the big picture, the view from 50,000 feet of what's going on in organizations, communities, the world? From up there, how would you describe these times? Is it a time of increasing economic and political instability, of growing divisiveness and fear, of failing systems and dying dreams? Is it a time of new possibilities, of great examples of hope, of positive human evolution, of transformation? Are we succeeding in solving major problems, are we creating more? Is it any of these things, is it all of these things? It's important to think about how we answer this question, because that answer affects our choice of actions. If we think that, generally, things are working, that at present we're going through a difficult but temporary downturn, then we don't question current systems or their operating assumptions. Instead, we work hard to revive and improve them. We support initiatives and programs focused on process improvements, developing present systems to work more effectively and more efficiently. If we believe that the old system cannot be repaired, if we expect to see only more system failures, then the work is not to fix. Instead, support needs to be given to radically different processes and methods, new systems based on new assumptions. The work becomes not process improvement but process revolution.

Adaptive Management in Habitat Conservation Plans - Wilhere, George F. (Conservation Biology, 2002)
Habitat conservation plans (HCPs) allow incidental take of threatened or endangered species in exchange for conservation measures that minimize and mitigate such taking. Habitat conservation plans entail a compromise between regulatory certainty and scientific uncertainty. This compromise is controversial because many HCPs are thought to inadequately address scientific uncertainty. Adaptive management is the systematic acquisition and application of reliable information to improve natural resource management over time. Ideally, under adaptive management, conservation strategies are implemented as a deliberate experiment. This approach can establish cause-and-effect relationships and point the way toward optimal strategies. Adaptive management has been promoted as essential to management under uncertainty, but few HCPs incorporate genuine adaptive management. Habitat conservation plans will continue to lack adaptive management until certain conditions are met, such as acknowledgment that an HCP is a management hypothesis, landowner interest in improving biological outcomes, and sufficient financial resources. Economic incentives would encourage adaptive management in HCPs. Habitat conservation plan permittees might receive direct payments or tax deductions for reliable information that benefits a species. “Mitigation credits” could be awarded for information produced through adaptive management. In effect, habitat would be exchanged for information that benefits a species. Successful use of mitigation credits would depend on correctly valuing information and enforcement of the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Under a “precautionary polluter pays principle,” an HCP permittee would put up an environmental assurance bond. Portions of the bond are returned with interest as adaptive management demonstrates that environmental damages are unlikely to occur. Funds spent on adaptive management are funds unavailable for habitat protection, so limited financial resources may force a compromise between protecting habitat and acquiring knowledge.

Participatory evaluation. What is it? Why do it? What are the challenges? - Zukoski, A.; Luluquisen, Mia (Community-based public health policy & practice, 2002)
Yogi Berra was right when he remarked, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll wind up somewhere else.” When we collectively apply our hopes and energies to improving our communities, how do we know if we’re making the right choices along the way? How will we notice when we are spinning our wheels and what changes to make? How will we know that we are making a difference? And how will we know what success looks like to everyone in the group? By taking a community-based public health approach to our work, we create an opportunity to engage in a particular type of evaluation—participatory evaluation – that can help answer those questions. For those groups that are interested in this approach, this policy brief discusses the key concepts of participatory evaluation and some tips for applying it. We also present some real-life examples from two evaluators who work with grantees of the Partnership for the Public’s Health Initiative.

Evaluation Feedback for Effective Learning and Accountability - OECD (OECD, 2001)
Evaluation is a key tool in improving the quality and effectiveness of development co-operation. The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Working Party in Aid Evaluation is the only international forum where bilateral and multilateral evaluation experts meet regularly. Its Members meet to improve evaluation practice and to learn lessons from development co-operation activities and experiences. A series "Evaluation and Aid Effectiveness" was launched to share selected pieces of work with a broader public. This publication is composed of two parts: The Workshop Report, based on the fore-mentioned meeting, highlights the various issues raised, topics of discussion and different feedback systems, and outlines the areas identified by participants as most relevant for improving evaluation feedback. The Background Synthesis Report, intended as a starting point for discussion at the workshop, outlines the main concerns and challenges facing evaluation feedback and the means to address these. The report is based on an analysis of questionnaire results, and a review of previous initiatives in this area. The print version of the above report is available free of charge from the Development Co-operation Directorate; please send an email to dac.contact@oecd.org to get a copy.
Google-Books-ID: kA39FghYYUgC

The Soul in the Computer: The Story of a Corporate Revolutionary - Waugh, Barbara (Inner Ocean Publishing, 2001)
When Barbara Waugh joined the Hewlett-Packard Corporation in the mid-80's, this 60's radical encountered a company with a benign but topdown leadership. As she progressed from recruiting manager to world change manager, she used a set of radical tools to transform its corporate culture and to help realize the true potential of The HP Way.

Strategy as Simple Rules - Eisenhardt, Kathleen M.; Sull, Donald (Harvard Business Review, 2001)
When the business landscape was simple, companies could afford to have complex strategies. But now that business is so complex, they need to simplify. Smart companies have done just that with a new approach: a few straightforward, hard-and-fast rules that define direction without confining it.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial management; Internet; Strategy; Strategy execution

Adaptive Management, the Endangered Species Act, and the Institutional Challanges of New Age Environmental Protection - Doremus, Holly (Washburn Law Journal, 2001)

Notes to Accompany ALPS - ActionAid (ActionAid International, 2001)

Manifesto for Agile Software Development - Agile Alliance (Agile Alliance, 2001)

Outcome Mapping: Building Learning and Reflection into Development Programs - Earl, Sarah; Carden, Fred; Smutylo, Terry; Patten, Michael Quinn (IDRC Books, 2001)
"Outcome Mapping provides not only a guide to essential evaluation map-making, but also a guide to learning and increased effectiveness, and affirmation that being attentive along the journey is as important as, and critical to, arriving at a destination." - Michael Quinn PattonMore and more, development organizations are under pressure to demonstrate that their programs result in significant and lasting changes in the well-being of their intended beneficiaries. However, such "impacts" are often the product of a confluence of events for which no single agency or group of agencies can realistically claim full credit. As a result, assessing development impacts is problematic, yet many organizations continue to struggle to measure results far beyond the reach of their programs. "Outcome Mapping" recognizes that development is essentially about people relating to each other and their environment. The originality of this approach lies in its shift away from assessing the products of a program to focus on changes in behaviour, relationships, actions, and activities in the people, groups, and organizations it works with directly. In doing so, "Outcome Mapping" debunks many of the myths about measuring impact. It will help a program be specific about the actors it targets, the changes it expects to see, and the strategies it employs and, as a result, be more effective in terms of the results it achieves. This publication explains the various steps in the outcome mapping approach and provides detailed information on workshop design and facilitation. It includes numerous worksheets and examples.

A reliability and validity study of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills—Modified - Elliot, Jacquelyn; Lee, Steven W; Tollefson, Nona (School Psychology Review, 2001)
Examined the psychometric properties of a set of preliteracy measures modified from the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) with a sample of 75 kindergarten students. The modified battery (called DIBELS—M) includes measures of Letter Naming Fluency, Sound Naming Fluency, Initial Phoneme Ability, and Phonemic Segmentation Ability. These measures were assessed through repeated administrations in 2-wk intervals at the end of the kindergarten year. Results indicate interrater reliability estimates and coefficients of stability and equivalence for 3 of the measures ranged from .80 to the mid .90s with about one-half of the coefficients above .90. Correlations between DIBELS—M scores and criterion measures of phonological awareness, standardized achievement measures, and teacher ratings of achievement yielded concurrent validity coefficients ranging from .60 to .70. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that the 4 DIBELS—M measures accounted for 73% of the variance in scores on the Skills Cluster of the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery—Revised. The contributions of the study, including psychometric analysis of the DIBELS—M with a new sample and formation of composite scores, are discussed in relation to the extant literature.

Addressing attribution through contribution analysis: Using performance measures sensibly - Mayne, John (The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 2001)
The changing culture of public administration involves accountability for results and outcomes. This article suggests that performance measurement can address such attribution questions. Contribution analysis has a major role to play in helping managers, researchers, and policymakers to arrive at conclusions about the contribution their program has made to particular outcomes. The article describes the steps necessary to produce a credible contribution story. Contents Accountability for Outcomes The Problem of Attribution The Case of Performance Measurement Recognizing the Limits of Measurement Two Uses of Performance Measurement: Understanding and Reporting Approaches to Attribution: Contribution Analysis Techniques for Strengthening Your Performance Story

Adaptive Management: A Tool for Conservation Practitioners - Salafsky, Nick; Margoluis, Richard; Redford, Kent (Foundations of Success, 2001)

Positive Deviant - Dorsey, David (Fast Company, 2000)
Jerry Sternin’s job was to help save starving children in Vietnam. Faced with an impossible time frame, he adopted a radical approach to making change. His idea: Real change begins from the inside.

Spiral Development: Experience, Principles, and Refinements - Boehm, B. W. (Carnegie Mellon University, 2000)

Voices of the poor: can anyone hear us? - Naraya, Deepa*Patel (The World Bank, 2000)
This book is the first in a three-part series, about the common patterns that emerged from the poor people's experiences in many different places. Chapter 1 sets out the conceptual framework and methodology. Chapter 2 discusses poverty from the perspective of the poor. Chapter 3 examines poor people's experience with the state, and includes case studies of access to health care and education. Chapter 4 addresses the nature and quality of poor people's interactions with civil society. Chapter 5 considers the household as a key social institution, and discusses gender relations within households and how these relations affect and are affected by larger institutions of society. Chapter 6 focuses on social fragmentation, and includes a discussion of social cohesion and social exclusion. Chapter 7 concludes the analysis and proposes some policy recommendations. The analysis leads to these conclusions: 1) poverty is multidimensional; 2) the state has been largely ineffective in reaching the poor; 3) the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the lives of the poor is limited, forcing the poor to depend primarily on their own informal networks; 4) households are crumbling under the stresses of poverty; and 5) the social fabric - poor people's only

Adaptive Software Development: A Collaborative Approach to Managing Complex Systems - Highsmith, Jim (Dorset House Publishing, 2000)
In today's turbulent e-business world, software project teams that survive and thrive won't be those that continue their traditions of optimization, efficiency, and control, but those that exhibit adaptability, speed, and collaboration. Adaptive Software Development is targeted at software teams where competition creates extreme pressure on the delivery process. Four goals of the book are * to support an adaptive culture in which change and uncertainty are assumed to be the natural state * to introduce frameworks to guide the iterative process of managing change * to institute collaboration, the interaction of people on interpersonal, cultural, and structural levels * to add rigor and discipline to the RAD approach, making it scalable to the uncertainty and complexity of real-world undertakings. This innovative text, grounded in the science of complex adaptive systems theory, offers a practical, realistic approach to managing the high-speed, high-change projects characteristic of our highly uncertain economy.

Accountability Learning and Planning System - ActionAid (ActionAid International, 2000)

Rediscovery of Traditional Ecological Knowledge as Adaptive Management - Berkes, Fikret; Colding, Johan; Folke, Carl (Ecological Applications, 2000)
Indigenous groups offer alternative knowledge and perspectives based on their own locally developed practices of resource use. We surveyed the international literature to focus on the role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in monitoring, responding to, and managing ecosystem processes and functions, with special attention to ecological resilience. Case studies revealed that there exists a diversity of local or traditional practices for ecosystem management. These include multiple species management, resource rotation, succession management, landscape patchiness management, and other ways of responding to and managing pulses and ecological surprises. Social mechanisms behind these traditional practices include a number of adaptations for the generation, accumulation, and transmission of knowledge; the use of local institutions to provide leaders/stewards and rules for social regulation; mechanisms for cultural internalization of traditional practices; and the development of appropriate world views and cultural values. Some traditional knowledge and management systems were characterized by the use of local ecological knowledge to interpret and respond to feedbacks from the environment to guide the direction of resource management. These traditional systems had certain similarities to adaptive management with its emphasis on feedback learning, and its treatment of uncertainty and unpredictability intrinsic to all ecosystems.
Keywords: Adaptive Management; Resource management; Social learning; Traditional Ecological Knowledge; human ecology; resilience

Learning in Development Co-operation - Carlsson, Jerker; Wohlgemuth, Lennart (Almqvist & Wiksell International, 2000)
Google-Books-ID: guMkAQAAIAAJ

From Users and Choosers to Makers and Shapers. Repositioning Participation in Social Policy - Cornwall, Andrea; Gaventa, John (IDS Bulletin, 2000)

Evaluating the ‘logical framework approach’ towards learning-oriented development evaluation - Gasper, Des (Public Administration and Development, 2000)
The logical framework approach has spread enormously, including increasingly to stages of review and evaluation. Yet it has had little systematic evaluation itself. Survey of available materials indicates several recurrent failings, some less easily countered than others. In particular: focus on achievement of intended effects by intended routes makes logframes a very limiting tool in evaluation; an assumption of consensual project objectives often becomes problematic in public and inter-organizational projects; and automatic choice of an audit form of accountability as the priority in evaluations can be at the expense of evaluation as learning.
_eprint: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/1099-162X%28200002%2920%3A1%3C17%3A%3AAID-PAD89%3E3.0.CO%3B2-5

Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics: The Challenge of Complexity - Stacey, Ralph D. (Pitman, 2000)
In the third edition of this successful text, Ralph Stacey continues to question the view that organisations operate and succeed in relatively stable environments. He argues that in order to succeed in uncertainty and continual change, organisations need to create new perspectives and learn from the chaos within which they operate. This edition continues to focus on this radically different approach to strategic management. The central tenets of this approach have to do with unpredictability and the limitations of control, and therefore it argues against the rational models of planning and control covered in other strategy textbooks. This is done by emphasising the importance of narrative, conversation and learning from one's own experience as the central means by which we can gain understanding and knowledge of strategy in organisations. - Sharper distinction between systemic and process thinking with new chapters on the philosophical origins of systems and process thinking, second order and critical system thinking. - new material on theory of complex responsive processes, particularly to do with control, leadership and ethics. - Includes 7 management narratives, ie, personal ac
Google-Books-ID: z7haAAAAYAAJ
Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Strategic Planning