How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam...
-
Upload
maria-sage -
Category
Documents
-
view
220 -
download
1
Transcript of How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam...
![Page 2: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
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
![Page 3: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
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 ResultsUsingKnowledge
UsingKnowledge
Learn During
Learn After
Learn Before
Knowledge Bases e.g. self, colleagues, systems, networks
![Page 4: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
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
![Page 5: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
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
![Page 6: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
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
![Page 7: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Colleagues; networks; tools
And so the initiatives we looked at were less like this picture…
Goals ResultsUsingKnowledge
UsingKnowledge
Create
Share Store
![Page 8: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
And more like this picture…
![Page 9: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Learn to get all your feet on the ground before trying to move!
![Page 10: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Outcome Mapping has already helped in (at least!) six ways
![Page 11: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Low
High
ProgramBeneficiaries/Indigenous Actors
Lesson one: focus more on contribution to outcomes, rather than attribution!
Influ
ence
Time
Inputs Activities Outputs Outcomes Impacts
![Page 12: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
= BPs
Partners
IT
HR
Knowledge & Learning Program
Library
EvalDepts
= 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
![Page 13: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Lesson three: move from boundary partners to outcome challenges to progress markers to strategy maps in a
participatory fashion
Outcome Mapping: Main Elements
Boundary Partners
Vision
Mission
O.C. OutcomeChallenge
O.C.
Progress Markers
Strategies
![Page 14: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Lesson four: Use Organisational Practices systematically to ensure strategies are tailored to existing
organisational contexts• E.g.1. Prospecting for new ideas, opportunities, & resources2. Seeking feedback from key informants3. Obtaining the support of your next highest power4. Assessing & (re)designing products, services, systems, and
procedures5. Checking up on those already served to add value6. Sharing your best wisdom with the world7.Experimenting to remain innovative
8. Engaging in organizational reflection
![Page 15: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Lesson five: Use journals to address the crucial M&E gap
![Page 16: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Lesson six: use the flexibility of OM to combine with other compatible
methodologies
1. Competency frameworks2. Social network analysis3. Force field analysis4. Most significant change…and more…
![Page 17: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Problem 1: OM is a little like farming – you have to have faith, be
persistent, and adapt to circumstances…
![Page 18: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Problem 2: top-down decision making on issues relating to
boundary partners feels incongruous with a commitment to OM
![Page 19: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Problem 3: The role of knowledge and learning specialists is not as a
technocrat / doctor but as a sparkplug
![Page 20: How can Outcome Mapping help strengthen knowledge and learning strategies? Ben Ramalingam b.ramalingam@odi.org.uk.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062312/551acc115503466b6a8b5224/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
FINAL THOUGHT
Focus on contribution, not attribution is particularly important
in the context of knowledge for development
- “whose knowledge counts”