In the morning we debriefed from the field visit, with the team reviewing what they had heard and potential outcomes. The team had taken good notes, and Phil had already started to write some draft outcomes in Google Sheets. We reviewed what we had collected and filled in details about locations and times as best we could, and removed a few which we deemed to be too vague. We also reviewed some additional draft outcomes that had come from background reading, and from the discussions from the first two days.
By the end of the morning we had 37 draft outcomes which were written up into a ‘database’ on Google Sheets. Many of these were small behavioural changes, but this is considered very good for just staff recollection and one visit to a village. These were just the descriptions, no contribution or significance was written at this stage.
We printed these out and in the afternoon reviewed the significance of the outcomes. The team had expressed some uncertainty about what significance was about, so Phil put together a simple framework to help the team; an outcome might be significant because it:
- is the first time this behaviour has happened
- has potential to grow into something greater
- is what the project is all about (vision, goal)
- is surprising or unexpected
- is a difficult change to make happen
- was done on the initiative of the actor (as opposed to dependence on the project)
- is a trigger for other observed outcomes
- is a negative outcome
Each outcome was discussed for its significance and mapped out from high to low significance on the sticky wall (the results were also written up into the outcomes database).
Once we had done this we asked the team which of the outcomes were “most significant” to them. The most popular was outcome 30 about a pastor being confident to teach in Swahili, since this is what the team really want to see, and as pastor become confident to share the word of God in the mother tongue then they will be able to share more effectively. Frank also liked how the NGO was starting to manage literacy classes, as he said “literacy is like a grader which helps the SE car travel more easily”!
We then took some time in prayer and thanked God for the outcomes.
The process of reviewing and refining outcomes took some time today, and at times felt a bit laborious. But it really felt that outcome harvesting ideas ‘landed’ today, so I asked the team to do a quick survey with ‘retrospective baseline’ - how would you rate your understanding of writing outcome statements compared to tuesday. The results:
- Tuesday: between 1.5 and 2.5 out of 5
- Thursday: between 3.5 and 4.5 out of 5.
So, some good development in understanding! The team also
expressed that:
- The process helps us to see fruit of the work we have been doing
- That while they had impact stories before, this process was helping them reflect more deeply
- That by pulling things together, it helps us to see how much is happening
- As we pull things together, we can begin to see patterns and connections
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