Category: Practical Ways to use Complexity to do Evaluation

How can “complexity” be used to identify program theory, specify data collection, interpret findings, and make recommendations?

Common Introduction to all 6 Posts History and Context These blog posts are an extension of my efforts to convince evaluators to shift their focus from complex systems to specific behaviors of complex systems. We need to make this switch because there is no practical way to apply the notion of a “complex system” to … Continue reading Consequences of Small Change: Part 5 of 6 Posts on Evaluation, Complex Behavior, and Themes in Complexity Science

Common Introduction to all 6 Posts History and Context These blog posts are an extension of my efforts to convince evaluators to shift their focus from complex systems to specific behaviors of complex systems. We need to make this switch because there is no practical way to apply the notion of a “complex system” to … Continue reading Networks and Fractals: Part 3 of 6 Posts on Evaluation, Complex Behavior, and Themes in Complexity Science

Common Introduction to all 6 Posts History and Context These blog posts are an extension of my efforts to convince evaluators to shift their focus from complex systems to specific behaviors of complex systems. We need to make this switch because there is no practical way to apply the notion of a “complex system” to … Continue reading Power Law Distributions: Part 2 of 6 Posts on Evaluation, Complex Behavior, and Themes in Complexity Science

Common Introduction to all 6 Posts History and Context These blog posts are an extension of my efforts to convince evaluators to shift their focus from complex systems to specific behaviors of complex systems. We need to make this switch because there is no practical way to apply the notion of a “complex system” to … Continue reading Emergence: Part 1 of 6 Posts on Evaluation, Complex Behavior, and Themes in Complexity Science

Lately I have been speaking to as many audiences as I can about the need to focus on complex behavior rather than on complex systems. The reason is that there is no practical way to apply the notion of a “complex system” to practical decisions about program models, metrics, or methodology. But it is possible … Continue reading Applying Complexity to Make Practical Decisions About Evaluation

In 2016 I developed a case for a workshop I did at the Canadian Evaluation Society on the use of complexity in evaluation. I was doing some archeology and unearthed it. It offers pretty rich opportunity to think about complex behavior in evaluation, so I decided to share it. Construction of the Case This is … Continue reading Case Study Example: Drawing on Complexity to do Hands-on Evaluation

There is an interesting discussion going on in the Linked-In discussion group of the European Evaluation Society with respect to a question someone asked: How do linear models address the complexity in which we work? I can’t help but to weigh in. I also placed a link to this blog post on the EES discussion … Continue reading Depicting Complexity in 2-D