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Section 4: THE RIGHT TOOLS TO MANAGE THE JOB
Step Seventeen: So what do I do now? Dissemination, evaluation and action plan.
Dissemination
In Step One it was pointed out that, while it is this final section that deals with dissemination and evaluation, these are both processes that you should plan for and, particularly in the case of evaluation, implement from the start.
Your dissemination plan will need to take account of the answers to the following questions:
Q: Who is the audience for this research project?
Q: What level of information will it need?
Q: What formats might it need it in?
Q: What is the best way to communicate with it?
The answers to these questions will help to determine the quantities of information you produce and whether this is in the form of full reports or executive summaries (there are those who will not have time to read a full report and prefer these).
You also need to consider whether you need to make the report or a summary, at least, available in different formats (for example, large print, Braille, tape or pictogram) or languages.
You are likely to want to communicate to both an internal and external audience so you will need to consider an appropriate range of mediums for doing this, including:
| Internal |
External |
Intranet
Internal publications (newsletters)
Memo
Executive Summary
Departmental meeting/presentation
|
Internet
Specialist press/newsletters
South West ID
Post, e-mail, CD Rom
Press release/press meeting
|
Your dissemination plan should enable effective ‘knowledge transfer’ of the research findings to the users and potential users.
Evaluation
You will need to know from the outset what you want to evaluate and why. You do not have to evaluate everything about a project every time you undertake one, but you will obviously want to evaluate key aspects, some of which you will need to evaluate from day one, including:
> is the project meeting its objectives?
> is the project keeping to its timeline?
> is the project staying within budget?
These things should be checked routinely through your contact with the researchers by phone and e-mail and, more formally, through verbal updates and interim reports at meetings of the steering group.
"use meetings to reflect back –
keep asking is this going to give us what we want?"
Commissioner
As the project progresses you will also want to assess:
> the quality of the data the researchers are generating
> the integrity of the analysis they are applying to that data
(for example, its objectivity and reliability)
> the quality of communication and relationship between yourself, the steering group and the researchers
For more information on evaluation see Chapter 5 of Commissioning market research: A guide for arts marketers
Finally, you will have to make an assessment about the quality of the project’s outputs and the processes by which these were reached.
"You have to evaluate the experience at the end.
Ask yourself – what did we learn? What happened?
How can we develop from here?
Without this process it’s really a waste of money."
Commissioner
Action plan
Having obtained the information you and your stakeholders needed you will need to write an action plan to implement change, no matter how small.
If you do not have the information you expected the research findings are likely to have some implications. So, even if it is a library and not a swimming pool you have ended up with, you will need an action plan.
"Results are never as exciting as you want them to be
and change doesn’t happen as quickly as you hoped"
Commissioner
An action plan should include:
> a set of aims or intentions – normally prefixed by "to" and indicating a shift or development from one position to another (for example, to increase our congregation from a to b)
> a set of objectives – normally prefixed by “by” and indicating how the shift or development is going to be achieved (for example, by improving the marketing of services and making the church warmer)
> a timetable by which this should be achieved
> the resources available for achieving each action
> and who will be responsible for delivering that action (either an individual, an organisation or a combination of these)
Whatever else you may do – do something! It is more than likely you have paid for your project with public money. That is not a bottomless pit, it is a precious resource – use it wisely!
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