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Step 6: Make change

Use data to make evidence-based decisions

Change is often the step that gets missed when carrying out an evaluation. People may collect and analyse their data, construct a report or send their acquittal off; but the data is then packed away and the next evaluation begins.

Making change within your organisation, also known as ‘change management’, is a much easier process when you have data to support your decisions. When you have finished evaluating an activity, have reported on your collected data and have added context to your evaluation, you can begin to make evidence-based change by relating your data back to your overall objectives identified in Step 1: Identify Outcomes. Has the data you have collected shown whether or not you have reached your initial objectives? Have you learned something surprising or discovered something interesting about your respondent’s experiences – perhaps a new perspective on your evaluated activity that you didn’t expect?

How you approach this step will largely depend on the context of your organisation, though we have some examples and references here to help guide you through the process:

• Mapping existing processes and implementing new ones
• Modelling the way policy and resource allocation decisions are made
• Inserting evidence-based decision points into decision-making processes
• Implementation of technology
• Trialling the evidence-based approach and recording the differences in resource allocations
• Reassessing or reconfiguring your organisational structure