Grab your favourite art supplies and summon up your creative muse! In this episode, we're joined by Andy Johnson, the other co-founder of Creative Evaluation & Engagement (along with his wife, Nora Murphy Johnson, who joined us a few episodes back to talk about evaluating from the heart) to talk about arts-based evaluation and bringing creativity into our evaluation practice. We learn about how Andy has brought poetry, theatre, kinetic sculpture and more into his evaluation methodology, how being a novelist helps him and his clients understand and work in complexity, the difference between prototyping and rehearsal, why evaluators need to channel our inner McGyvers, and how an attention to arts, creativity, and the whole person can help us move evaluation toward equity and justice.

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Carolyn and Brian are joined by special guest Chris Corrigan (http://www.chriscorrigan.com/) to talk about the intersections and interconnections of evaluation and facilitation. Are they warring factions? Soulmates in complexity? Can we "recover learning from the trauma of being judged" and move into a joyful practice as we navigate expertise in complexity for social change? Where does "mooshing" come into all of this? What do facilitators and evaluators have to offer each other and what can we wrestle with together? Tune in and find out! Bonus content: soccer, nonlinear pedagogy, and Brian's bookclub foibles, not necessarily in that order.

Full episode notes available at our website.

In this episode, we’ve invited listeners from across the globe to join us in checking in, connecting, and being human with each other as we respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Thank you to Ann, Jade, Cameron, Zach, Carolyn H., Shelby, Tom, Sarah, Libby, Kelly, Naomi, Trilby, Megan, Chris, Khalil, and Nicky for being part of this episode and sharing your stories.

Full show notes available at our website.

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Happy New Year! To kick off 2019, Carolyn and Brian take a look backwards and forward - tune in to hear how they did with 2018’s directions and their plans for the coming 12 months! Conversation topics include community development, creativity and arts-based approaches, the therapeutic benefits of podcasting, teasers for upcoming episodes, and a discussion on whether 2019 will (finally) be the Year of the Trombone.

Full show notes available at our website.

Episode Notes

In this episode, we welcome our first guest FROM THE FUTURE (by which we mean Australia), Jade Maloney, of ARTD Consultants (https://artd.com.au/). Jade helps us “unbox” the theme of the upcoming Australian Evaluation Society 2019 conference, “Evaluation Un-boxed”. Join us as we unpack and deconstruct evaluation in every conceivable way. Why do we call ourselves evaluators? What does that mean? Are we just misunderstood? Can evaluation be a gift? How is evaluation like a creative writing class? Is evaluation more like socks, a gym pass, or a beautiful vase? What kinds of boxes are we putting ourselves in? How many people are we going to annoy by questioning whether we should define evaluation around determining merit, worth, and significance? Should we define ourselves more by what we do, how we do it, or why we do it? How many long, pensive silences did Carolyn have to edit out of the recording after we started asking really big existential questions? And just how many past episodes are we going to reference before the episode is over?

Peek inside for all these questions and more!*

*Answers not guaranteed.

Full episode notes available at our website.

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Carolyn and Brian are joined this week by former-Saskatonian-now-Haligonian Evan Poncelet to talk about journeys through the field of evaluation. Topics of discussion include DIY bricolage approaches to ongoing learning, whether Evan is REAL, experiences with awkwardly-worded emails, and the perils of clumping.

Full show notes available on our website.

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In this episode, Carolyn and Brian are joined by Michael Quinn Patton for a deep dive into principles-focused evaluation (PFE). Despite some technical glitches en route, we persisted to discuss the relation of PFE to social innovation, examples of how principles are being used, the role of reflection in PFE, and how our grad school statistics class would be different if we took it today.

Full show notes available on our website.

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Brian and Carolyn dive into the year 2020 with a characteristically reflective episode where we review the highs and lows of 2019 and our ambitions and intentions for the year ahead. From Brian’s “tripped on a skateboard, slipped on a banana peel, did a triple lutz, and somehow stuck the landing” to Carolyn’s “living in the surprise of it”, we talk about the tribulations of evaluation consulting and finding our respective niches, how the ‘sausage gets made’ vis a vis the podcast, tease our respective plans for 2020 and some potential episode topics and guests, and go deep on what it all means. Will Carolyn get that Red Rose tea sponsorship? Will Brian keep his digital spaces decluttered? How many books does Carolyn sleep with? Will Brian EVER have a Year of the Trombone? And how are evaluators like Casper the Friendly Ghost? Only time (and this episode) will tell!

Full show notes available at our website.

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Join Brian, Carolyn, and special guest Kim van der Woerd (Reciprocal Consulting) as we wander into the complex and intriguing world of principles-focused evaluation. Will our paradigms be shifted? Will our hearts be centered? Will we remember all the stuff that Michael Quinn Patton tried to instil in us from all the workshops and books and conference presentations?* Let's hope! Tune in and find out what we have to say about how we can use storytelling, whether program logic models can be redeemed, and how we're trying to overcome barriers to using principles-focused evaluation in our work.

Full episode notes available at our website.

In this episode of Eval Cafe (one of only two places where evaluators really get crunk, according to guest Andy Johnson, with the other being the Diversity TiG social at the annual AEA conference), come hang out with our super panel of returning guests—Andy Johnson and Nora Murphy Johnson (Inspire to Change), and Chris Corrigan (Harvest Moon Consulting) as we expand chronos and play infinite games in kairos. We start by jumping into the question, “What does evaluation offer and what does evaluation need in times of great uncertainty and injustice?”, and follow that thread through a conversation about how evaluation delivers uncertainty instead of certainty, why arts-based evaluation exists (aside from being the coolest evaluation), evaluators as accompanists and ‘friends of the process’, Nora’s outline of her theory of transformation (plus one addition from Chris), exoskeletons, endoskeletons, why evaluation needs imagination to be rigorous, spaciousness, how to play in complexity, and how interesting it is how many problems can be solved in exactly the three years of a granting cycle.

Full show notes available at our website.

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On this week's episode, we're joined by Khalil Bitar, chair of the EvalYouth Global Network for a wide-ranging conversation. We touch on the trends we're seeing with young and emerging evaluators, why we should consider contrarian opinions, the value of evaluative thinking, and how we can work in service of equity and justice without sacrificing methodology and rigour.

Full show notes available here.

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Carolyn and Brian attended AEA 2019, and reflecting, learning, connecting, and hilarity ensued! Especially when they realized that they almost forgot how to properly record a podcast (on that note, sorry about Brian's poor audio quality). Topics covered include conference rooming as a means for testing friendship, praises for the footwear choice of a past podcast guest, reimagining the conference and our footprint on the host community, and the merits of a river of coffee.

Full show notes available at our website.

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We’ve mentioned it in passing in multiple episodes, but today we go into a deep dive on the Evaluation for Social Change and Transformational Learning program (course? certificate?) offered through Simon Fraser University. Joining us in this conversation are Kim van der Woerd (also our first repeat guest!), Billie Joe Rogers, and Sofia Vitalis from Reciprocal Consulting to share their perspectives as designers and instructors in the program’s first year. We talk about personal and social transformations, the intertwining of evaluation and leadership, the weaponization of data, and the importance of saying hello to a problem before you can say goodbye to it.

Full show notes available on our website.

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Rita Fierro (of Fierro Consulting LLC and DrRitaWrites.com), a multifaceted practitioner of evaluation and facilitation, joins Brian and Carolyn on a deep exploration of the fractal nature of social transformation, trauma and healing, and how our evaluation practices can weave through these complex spaces. From the pursuit of “beloved community” to how we handle our own healing work to working with leaders and being leaders ourselves to what stories we tell and want to be telling to vicarious trauma in evaluation work to what it means to embrace our emotions without letting them drive, we cover it all. Be sure to check out the blog post that inspired and informed this conversation: Social Change is a Fractal Thing

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Kelly Hannum joins Carolyn and Brian this episode to talk about leadership and its connection to evaluation. After defining what “leadership” actually means (spoiler: it involves direction, alignment, and commitment), we discuss evaluation’s power to question the premise, the transformational power of leadership development, the importance of relational or “soft” skills in both evaluation and leadership, and the connection between evaluation and strategic planning. Also, we learn more about Carolyn’s back story and declare an official position of the podcast on a key evaluation issue.

Apologies for a few audio glitches in this one!

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In this episode, we’re joined by Nora Murphy Johnson, co-founder of Creative Evaluation, which focuses on evaluation for truth, beauty, and justice. In a conversation about evaluation for healing and change, evaluation as sacred work and a noble calling, Nora tells us about the winding path she has taken as an evaluator, how her relationship with her husband, an artist and evaluator himself, informs the work they do together, how she’s working to bring embodiment to her practice and why it matters, and gives us a glimpse into how the first Creative Evaluation cohort is exploring new ways to understand and do evaluation. It’s a beautiful and powerful conversation filled with touching and profound insights on how we can, in Nora's words, do “heart-centred evaluation”.

CONTENT NOTE: To help you make an informed decision about when and how you want to listen to this episode, we wanted to let you know that this episode will touch on the death of a young child from illness as well as systemic racist violence and the implications of this for loved ones.

Full episode notes available at our website.

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Double the Carolyn’s, double the depth of conversation! We’re joined this week by Carolyn Hoessler, facilitator, curriculum developer, evaluator, and Founder of Higher Education and Beyond. After a brief chat on evaluation in higher education contexts, we dive into the topics of sense-making and evaluative thinking, covering What-So What-Now What, the Cynefin framework, children as complex adaptive systems, and the power of saying “I don’t know”. Plus, Brian takes some time to answer the question “Is water wet?”, and Carolyn Camman says something nice about the field of evaluation.

Full show notes available on our website.

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Episode Notes

Did you miss us, listeners? Your erstwhile podcast hosts are back in the saddle! Or back on the bicycle? Whatever metaphor we eventually landed on, this is our first published episode in over two years! A little rusty, but we're pretty sure being a little unpolished is part of our charm, right?

In this episode, we catch you up on what we've been doing, including Brian's capstone project, C's evaluation workshop, and a paper on queer evaluation we have been writing with some of our colleagues. As ever, no promises about a regular release schedule in the future, but we're excited to be sitting around the metaphorical coffee table again!

If you want more evaluation podcast content, please check out the other shows we mentioned in this episode, including the Evaluland podcast, Community Possibilities, the Glass Frog podcast, and one we forgot to say but is also amazing, Radical (Re)imagining!

Full show notes, including links to all the things we talked about, available on our website.

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Episode Notes

Kick things off right with Brian and Carolyn as we tackle one of the most deep and profound philosophical questions facing the field of evaluation—how do you even start one of these things!? Where do you begin with evaluation? What does it take to unravel the story behind the evaluation purpose? Why give people fake findings? What are the assumptions that can get you off on the wrong foot? What’s the value of a dumb question? How do we avoid the method trap? How does going slow help us go faster? And, most important of all, who’s actually going to listen all the way through that part in the middle where we got distracted talking about our respective file organization systems? Tune in and find out!

Full episode notes available at our website.

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Episode Notes

You definitely want to swipe right on this episode to hear Carolyn and Brian talk about client relationships! We discuss looking beyond the dating profile, deciding what questions to ask right at the get-go, handling the inevitable relationship woes, and deciding when to rekindle the romance or just walk away. Carolyn put it best: "The relationship metaphors just don't stop!"

Full episode notes available at our website.

In theory, this episode was a chance for us to review how we’re doing with our intentions for 2019. And we get there, we promise! En route, we discuss routines and systems, what comes after March Madness, Carolyn’s inability to unsubscribe from email lists, Brian’s allergic reaction to the SMART acronym, and crises singular and collective. We also get a (non-) update from Brian on the Year of the Trombone,and Carolyn hosts a TED talk partway through. Plus, an #evalmemes challenge for our listeners!

Full show notes available on our website

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Carolyn and Brian are joined in this episode by Dr. Michael Harnar to talk conferences. Listen as we talk about what we enjoy about these regular meetups, our strategies for avoiding both conference burnout and FOMO, improvements we’d like to see in how they’re held, and our favourite conference memories.

Full episode notes available at our website.

Find out more at https://eval-cafe.pinecast.co

David Keyes joins Carolyn and Brian to talk about R - the open-source statistical package, that is, not the letter (or the pirate vocalization). Once we got past Brian’s bad pun, we discussed the benefits of using code, how to get started with R, and using the software to help communicate results. We also learned that R is not just a tool for statisticians and that there’s a welcoming online community of folks helping newbies and creating equity-focused tools. Come for the statistical package, stay for the community!

Content heads-up: There is a short discussion of a community response to a sexual assault case starting at 49:34. If you want to skip this discussion, you can skip ahead to the next chapter in your podcast player or fast-forward to 52:55.

Full show notes available here.

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This episode brings the evaluation joy with the blue-collar scholar and aspiring academic stand-up comedian, Dr. Nicole Bowman, of [Bowman Performance Consulting] (https://bpcwi.com/). Nicky joins us to talk about evaluation as medicine and how we can heal ourselves, our communities, and our world through the service of evaluation. Nicky shares how she’s figuring this out in her own practice and lays down some fundamentals that all evaluators need to know about the context of our work. We get into practical ways to try new things and do evaluation differently, touch on imposter syndrome and the importance of working in community, and we laugh. A lot. Come listen and be “crazy in love with evaluation” with us!

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Carolyn and Brian are back in the Eval Cafe and ready for a brand new school-year that’s just “chalk” full of learning! Pull up a desk, get out your binders and cahiers, and be prepared to take notes because this will be on the final exam. What’s Brian’s ultimate whiteboard hack? How does Carolyn justify putting a bed in their office? What educational experiences are Carolyn and Brian most looking forward to and how did they spend their summer vacation? Warning: this episode comes with a reading list.

This is the episode that may as well have been sponsored by Ikea, Staples, and 3M (makers of the best post-its, as long as you don’t accidentally buy the ‘pop-up’ kind). Please send us free office supplies! Also, the word of this episode is “excited”–count how many times Carolyn says it, win a prize!

(Apologies for a small amount of audio distortion on the track at 12:26.)

Full show notes available at: https://evalcafe.wordpress.com/2018/09/20/episode-12-evalcafe-goes-back-to-school/

Carolyn and Brian pack their bags (and more importantly their podcasting gear) and meet up in Calgary for the Canadian Evaluation Society’s annual conference! This episode, recorded as a Thematic Breakfast Roundtable, features five attendees who joined our intrepid hosts at a wholly-unreasonable time of morning on the final day of the conference. Among other topics, we talk about the conference theme (Co-Creation), the upcoming updates to the CES evaluator competencies (now with 41% fewer words!), the idea of crashing a mayors’ conference, and the relative population density of Australia and Canada. We promise, the conversation makes more sense when you listen to it. Full show notes available at: https://evalcafe.wordpress.com/2018/06/05/episode-11-co-created-conversation