Welcome to Today’s ECLIPS Webinar

1. Welcome to Today’s ECLIPS Webinar

2. Check-in • What’s happened since our last gathering that you’d like to share with the group (either personal or professional)?

3. ECLIPS WebinarApril 20, 2012Why Multiple System Dynamics Matter in Evaluation

4. Overview of Today’s Webinar • Check-in • Matt’s work • Review of Multiple System Dynamics • Questions for Discussion—How does attention to subsystem dynamics: • enhance understanding of project/initiative? • potentially lead to a different logic model display? • influence data collection content and processes? • May Webinar Preparation

5. Review of Multiple System Dynamics

6. Multiple System Dynamics • Organized • Self-organizing/adaptive • Unorganized/random/chaotic

7. System Dynamics Related to Certainty and Agreement

8. Self-organizing, Adaptive Dynamics • many semi-independent and diverse agents, who are free to act in unpredictable ways, continually interact with each other.

9. Complex Adaptive System (CAS)Self-organizing System System-wide patterns emerge Those system-wide patterns, in turn, influence the behaviors of the agents Agents interact Courtesy of G. Eoyang, Human System Dynamics Institute

10. Discussion Question #1 • How does attention to the dynamics of subsystems enhance an evaluator's understanding of the project/initiative?

11. unorganized, random Agreement Adaptive, Self-Organizing, Organic simple, controlled, organized Certainty Karen Peterman Low School Projects Evaluation Energy Quests High Summer Institute High Low

12. unorganized, random Agreement Adaptive, Self-Organizing, Organic simple, controlled, organized Certainty Lloyd Bingman Low Work with state agencies re: displaced workers Secure local businesses for apprenticeship opportunities IT courses/training Apprenticeship recruitment College recruitment process Work with liaison with state employers High High Low

13. Discussion Question #2- Brainstorming • How might a focus on multiple dynamics lead to a different type of logic model display? • Be creative!

14. Discussion Question #3 • How does attention to the dynamics of subsystems influence data collection content and processes?

15. Data Collection and Analysis Focus • Recall that earlier we discussed framing data collection questions around boundaries, perspectives, and relationship • A more general description is containers, differences, and exchanges (CDE). • Does thinking in terms of system dynamics stimulate other ideas about data collection and analysis?

16. Summary of Features of Self-organizing, Adaptive Dynamics

17. Features of Self-organizing, Adaptive Dynamics • Sensitivity to initial conditions • Emergence • Macro patterns • Feedback • Co-evolution • Pattern formation and points of influence

18. Implications for Interventions and Evaluation • Small differences can create large effects. • The past influences but does not predict the future. • Many points of influence exist. • Boundaries, differences, and relationships (containers, differences, exchanges) are levers of influence toward a purpose.

19. Implications for Interventions and Evaluation • Simple rules underlie patterns. • Pattern-based feedback and action are iterative. • Tensions are not resolved. • Patterns are outcomes.

20. May Webinar Focus and Preparation • Seeing, understanding, and influencing patterns • Patterns are similarities, differences, and connections that have meaning across time and/or space/location.

21. May Webinar Preparation • Observe patterns: • In your house/apartment • Outside in a natural setting • In a city • Describe the patterns in terms of similarities, differences, and connections that have meaning across time and/or location.