How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? ·  · 2012-10-16How...

How can Outcome Mapping

help strengthen knowledge and learning

strategies?

Ben Ramalingam

b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk

Why are knowledge strategies

so popular?

• Evaluation lessons being ignored

• Consultant reports getting buried

• Research being bypassed

• Operational / field experience being lost when staff move on

• Organisational learning being blocked by hierarchies or internal structures

• Agencies not knowing what each other are doing

• Local stakeholders being left out of the loop

In an ideal (corporate) world

knowledge and learning initiatives

would look something like this…

“…The idea is not to

create an

encyclopaedia of

everything that

everybody knows,

but to keep track of

people who ‘know

the recipe’, and

nurture the

techniques,

technology and

culture that will get

them talking…”

Goals ResultsUsing

Knowledge

UsingKnowledge

Learn During

Learn After

Learn Before

Knowledge Bases e.g. self, colleagues, systems, networks

But development agencies are a

little different…

• Development sector organisations

“…dealing with the most complex, ill-defined questions facing humanity…”

• The re-branding of the World Bank as the Knowledge Bank was very influential

• Rapid growth of KM / OL strategies across agencies of all sizes and functions

• ODI has done research on knowledge strategies in a range of organisations

Findings• Knowledge initiatives are still largely focused on products and systems (outputs) as

opposed to processes and behaviour changes (outcomes)

• A few tools are being applied, but none in a widespread or systematic way

• Knowledge initiatives are distant from or in conflict with processes, functions and existing culture

• High-level buy-in and leadership is rare

• “Knowledge is power” but knowledge strategies often sits on top of existing inefficiencies and power imbalances, rather than resolving them

• Inter-agency knowledge flows are not covered in any knowledge strategies

• With the South, dominant modes are “transfer to” or “extract from”, rather than a process of mutual learning

• Objective, evidence-based M&E of learning is weak

Constraints• Much knowledge is highly specialist and not of organisation-wide interest

• Lack of time– Underlying priorities?

• Internal processes don’t provide contexts for knowledge sharing

• Lack of a learning culture and incentives– individualistic cultures and funding structures

– Knowledge is power

• Multiple objectives can blur the imperative for knowledge and learning activities– In private sector, coherence of KM is matched by coherence of objectives

• The incremental nature of behaviour change + relatively new area of work

• Initiatives over-laden with high expectations and too many activities– At least partly due to “knowledge evangelism”

– shopping lists, not strategies

Colleagues; networks; tools

And so the initiatives we looked at were

less like this picture…

Goals ResultsUsing

Knowledge

UsingKnowledge

Create

Share Store

And more like this picture…

Learn to get all your feet on the

ground before trying to move!

Outcome Mapping has already

helped in (at least!) six ways

Low

High

ProgramBeneficiaries/Indigenous Actors

Lesson one: focus more on

contribution to outcomes, rather than

attribution!

Influence

Time

Inputs Activities Outputs Outcomes Impacts

= BPs

Partners

IT

HR

Knowledge &

Learning

Program

Library

Eval

Depts

= SPs

Field

staff

Admin

staff

Desk

officers

Senior

Mgmt

Donors

Media

Comms

Lesson Two: understanding the boundary partners and

strategic partners attitudes and approach is essential

Lesson three: move from boundary partners to outcome

challenges to progress markers to strategy maps in a

participatory fashion

Lesson four: Use Organisational

Practices systematically to ensure

strategies are tailored to existing

organisational contexts• E.g.

1. Prospecting for new ideas, opportunities, & resources

2. Seeking feedback from key informants

3. Obtaining the support of your next highest power

4. Assessing & (re)designing products, services, systems, and procedures

5. Checking up on those already served to add value

6. Sharing your best wisdom with the world

7.Experimenting to remain innovative

8. Engaging in organizational reflection

Lesson five: Use journals to address the

crucial M&E gap

Lesson six: use the flexibility of OM to

combine with other compatible

methodologies

1. Competency frameworks

2. Social network analysis

3. Force field analysis

4. Most significant change

…and more…

Problem 1: OM is a little like

farming – you have to have faith, be

persistent, and adapt to

circumstances…

Problem 2: top-down decision

making on issues relating to

boundary partners feels incongruous

with a commitment to OM

Problem 3: The role of knowledge

and learning specialists is not as a

technocrat / doctor but as a

sparkplug

FINAL THOUGHT

Focus on contribution, not

attribution is particularly important

in the context of knowledge for

development

- “whose knowledge counts”

Thank you for listening!

Ben Ramalingam

b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk