Introduction to Outcomes Blog July 30, 2006
Posted by Paul Duignan in : Blog info , add a commentThis blog is about outcomes theory, evaluation, indicator monitoring, performance management, evidence-based practice and related topics. I specialize in these areas. While these topics sound a little dry, getting outcomes systems right has lots of implications for the workplace, politics and life in general. For instance, many of us have to struggle to convince our employers or other stakeholders that we’re delivering the results they want, sometimes its because we’ve not delivered; but on many other occasions it’s because we’re working with a poorly designed outcomes system. Looking wider than just the world of work, we can find areas where aspects of outcomes theory can help us understand what is going on around us. For instance many, if not most, of the disputes we read about in politics are arguments about attribution (who can prove who actually caused what) and accountability (who should actually be praised or blamed for causing it).
A general approach to thinking about outcomes systems of all sorts has now been developed (outcomestheory.org). It’ll appeal to those who’re interested in a comprehensive way of analyzing the concepts behind outcomes or performance management systems of all types. Any feedback from those who are interested in such theory would be appreciated. For those of you who are more hands-on, there’s an applied system based on outcomes theory called Systematic Outcomes Analysis (systematicoutcomesanalysis.org). Elements of this approach are currently being applied in a range of organizations and sectors and I’ll be talking about some examples of how it can be applied on this blog along with many examples of issues in thinking about and decision-making around outcomes.
Paul Duignan (outcomesblog.org)