Jackie Shimshoni: Evaluating the End With the Beginning

As Bonnie mentioned in her blog, the idea of measurable impact is really at the core of the arts management program.  As we rely heavily on donors and grants to produce work that is quality yet affordable, the ability to weave a story filled with both quantitative figures and qualitative anecdotes is central to our success in keeping organizations going.  And as the articles also mention, this all needs to be done while aligning with the organizational mission.

When thinking about the way this manifests in an outcome for Workbench Studio, it was interesting to evaluate how the desired result reflected more deeply on the true mission of the organization.  When thinking about measuring success, it seems essential to go back in time to the beginning of the organization's creation (the beginning of class for some, the end of November for me).  What was the motivating factor in creating this venture in the first place?  Not just from what was written out in the business plan (although ideally that should be included somewhere, I think), but from the motivating factor that made me say "I should do this instead of something that already exists"?  After some soul-searching, I settled on the fact that I know how hard it is to not know what you want to do.  I have a younger brother and sisters, and formerly a slew of high school students I taught, who I believe in beyond whatever their official job title is--I just want to see them working hard to do something they love.  I want to see them taking pride in what they do and feeling good about what they have the potential to create.  I think of Workbench's potential audience in the same way that I think about them.  And if Workbench extends the horizons of their knowledge of their options, then that is an impact that I would love to have.  It's rather qualitative, but this manifests quantitatively in many ways--amount of time unemployed vs others, survey measures of short- and long-term educational and workforce satisfaction.  It's something that will take a long time, though, so I am still working on thinking of short-term methods of evaluation.

In the meantime, when I was reading these articles, it made me want to re-read a book that I have and love.  It is called Magnetic: The Art and Science of Engagement.  The way that it thinks about success is, I think, a really useful way of diving deeper into the impacts and outcomes that you would like your organization to have.  And it features the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, so there is definitely some local flavor as well.  I think looking at these organizations and how they are impacting their communities will be helpful in putting together some more potential measures of success.

Next week's work with finances will be interesting, as I think this is a big gap in my thinking, and something that played a big role in the Stanford article.  The idea of impact from a "touching lives" perspective to me is easy; the money, not as much.  The objective of this organization is so completely people-oriented that it's hard to imagine the ways in which financials play a role, except in the idea of improving offerings to reach the type imagined in the initial business plan (and with any luck, paying a finance person to worry about money for me).  I suppose in part it's because that was not my beginning piece that it is not surfacing as I'm doing my loop around.  Am I the only one who is having trouble with this piece?