Evaluation & review

We have extensive experience in evaluation and review across a wide range of subject areas.  This includes large scale programme reviews and smaller scale evaluations of individual projects.  We strongly focus our analysis on impacts and outcomes, and ensure a strong developmental aspect in all work i.e. not just what has happened, but what this could mean in future?

Strategic development

We have supported many organisations to create future strategies for the short, medium, and long term.  These commonly emerge from important and inclusive developmental processes focused on producing practical and used documents – often with associated Implementation Plans.  We create strategies with clients: we have no interest in creating them for clients.

Feasibility studies, business planning, and project development

This can be exciting and challenging – conceiving, testing, and then translating ideas into practical action.  Often this then involves identifying and sourcing funding and investment.  We like challenges, and like to think we bring informed imagination to development processes.  But we never own things in the long run: so our approach is always based on leaving clients when they are ready to forge on independently.        

Partnership training and development

Partnerships and collaborative working demands are everywhere.  It is a way of working that can bring great rewards; but is often harder than people think to get right, and then sustain.  We have a vast range of experience in partnership working – within and across organisations in the public, voluntary, and private sectors.  Our approach is based on extensive practical experience, supported by a little bit of theory.  A flavour of this is contained in the following article.

Organisational review and capacity building

This work requires and enables us to get in among the ‘wiring’ of organisations – bringing an external and hopefully fresh perspective on organisational challenges.  In this we never judge; we help.  Everything starts for us with organisational objectives and values, and from these our support is always constructively focused on maximising organisational impacts and ambitions.    

Facilitation

This is probably the activity we enjoy most.  Working with and helping groups of people – often with very varied backgrounds – work through and resolve issues and challenges.  Our approach is interactive, premised on listening, and always focused on producing clear outputs and conclusions.  We also believe good facilitation can be fun – we have failed if people leave our sessions without having some sense they were both valuable and enjoyable.