Blog - Page 3 of 5 - Empowered Development Consulting

Improv for the Reluctant

December 13, 2021November 16, 2021 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

I I think nothing I have done has been met with more resistance than making people do improv activities! The amount of resistance that I am met with dramatically varies depending on the group dynamics. Here are a few things that I have observed about reluctance to do improv. Introverts = More Resistance The more self-proclaimed introverts in a group, the more resistance there will be to doing improv activities. Introverts generally need more processing time, so activities like improv games that require them to think and respond quickly are not typically their favorite thing. They also tend to like smaller groups or one on one interactions over larger group activities. Improv muscles are like the muscles in your body; the more you work them, the stronger they get. Group trust is critical. There is less trust within newer teams, and therefore members are often more resistant to these activities than with more established teams. If you, as a facilitator, are experiencing pushback around doing improv activities,...

Improv as a Training Tool

November 29, 2021November 16, 2021 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

I My high school theater teacher would never let us do improv games or activities; he said they were reserved for advanced theater students. This was at the height of the popularity of the American version of "Whose Line is It Anyway," and I honestly felt a bit irritated that he was preventing me from getting to try my hand at improv. I continued to view improvisational skills as desirable and took any opportunity to practice and improve my skills. As my career has progressed, I see how they benefited me as an educator and museum professional and as a team member and entrepreneur. Early in my career, I got involved with the National Informal Science Education Network (NISEnet), and leaders in that organization professed the powers of improv. They gave me opportunities to not only practice these skills but learned to facilitate them in my museum. I have since used them as a crucial part of my training programs to break...

Transformative Change Through Imagination

November 15, 2021November 16, 2021 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

“Pretend you are a boat, and I’ll ride you to an island, but you have magical powers, and I can’t steer you, so you end up going to the island on the other side over there, and on that island, there is a dragon…” this is an actual storyline initiated by my seven year old recently. As a mom to two girls, age four and seven, I am so lucky to get the chance to witness their imagination at play constantly. The stuff they come up with never fails to amaze me and inspire awe and wonder. Just yesterday, the girls set up a rock shop with rocks that they had collected outside and insisted I film an impromptu commercial advertising their excellent rocks at low, low prices. As an educator and someone who has worked with children much of my adult life, I know deep in my core that we need to value imagination and make space for creativity...

Fixing Shallow Training

November 1, 2021November 16, 2021 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

Many training professionals have gotten the feedback that there wasn’t enough time or that the training content was shallow. There is so much to cover and too little time! Our instinct in preparing a training curriculum for when you have limited time and resources is to give them a bit of information on many things, but I would argue that this leaves your team feeling overwhelmed and ill-prepared for the hard work they will face post-training. These types of training can be frustrating for employees and can contribute to burnout and turnover. So how do we fix this mile-wide and inch-deep training problem? Here are five things to consider when planning to preempt shallow training. 5 Things to Fix Shallow Training Prioritize application of knowledge in instruction over covering generalized topics at intermittent times. When you only have an hour, spend 10 minutes on new information and 50 minutes applying this new content. Help participants make connections to other training. For example, if...

Setting Baselines and Targets

October 18, 2021November 16, 2021 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

If you have created a logic model and are in the process of developing indicators of success as part of your evaluation plan, you must understand the process of setting baselines and targets. Targets Targets are pre-established goals set for the program, and they help create a path and end destination for what you hope to achieve with a program or service (the intervention). Often defined in numbers or percentages, they indicate success. Include these numbers in your logic model to help all stakeholders see how success is measured. For example, if your team is creating a STEM career internship for girls, a sample target might be that 90% of participants completed the full three-month internship. This completion rate target is SMART and indicates success in the short term. If you want a target that helps you show long-term impacts of the intervention -the internship- you might wish to a follow-up interview after five years, where you look for 50% of interns...

Developing Indicators of Success

October 4, 2021November 16, 2021 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

Success indicators (see my previous post) are crucial to monitoring and measuring the success of a program or service. In this post, I will explain how to develop indicators of success and help you to identify when to use them. Step 1: Identify Your Team The research staff should develop indicators of success during the planning phase of your program design process in close collaboration with the program staff. If you don’t have a research team, designate who will be responsible for the oversight of the research. If any government or NGO counterparts are designing the program and have explicit knowledge of the program goals and objectives, you will want to include them. Step 2: Identify What to Measure Next, determine which inputs, outputs, or outcomes (see my post: What is a Logic Model?) of the program are most important to track. A program will likely use many indicators to assess the change that results from the intervention. These can be pulled from the...

Success Indicators

September 20, 2021November 16, 2021 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

I’ve shared about logic models in previous posts; these are visual tools to help you develop successful programs or services. One of the critical pieces within a logic model is developing agreed-upon outcomes that indicate that the program is successful. To measure these, we need tools called success indicators. How do they assess the outcomes of a program? They do this by defining its characteristics or variables and then tracking those characteristics over time or between groups. Clear success indicators are the foundation of any effective monitoring and evaluation system. Organizations need success indicators for two reasons. The first is to track how a program is working and moving toward progress in reaching specific goals. Program staff and the program leadership team need to measure this change over time and make adjustments in real-time to help achieve the desired outcomes. The second reason these clear indicators are required is for accountability. Key stakeholders may contribute to the design of a program, but it is ultimately...

Guiding a Team to Build a Logic Model

September 6, 2021November 16, 2021 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

Facilitating a group through the process to build a logic model can feel overwhelming. I have some tips and tricks to make the process easier when leading a team through the process of creating a logic model. Who should be involved? Try to limit the group to as few people as possible but ensure that you have representation from project/program staff, evaluation staff, and, when possible, leadership teams. Groups larger than ten often struggle to come to a consensus. If your group has more than ten people, think about how you structure each work session; there may be a way to design each session so that every member does not have to be present at every meeting. Where should we meet? You will want a flexible space that allows for small group and large group discussions. You will also want a whiteboard or another method to collect ideas. If your room doesn’t have a whiteboard, post-its can be a powerful tool for brainstorming as...

How Do I Create A Logic Model?

August 23, 2021November 16, 2021 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

In my previous post, I summarized logic models. If you read that post or have heard about logic models but don’t know where to start, I’ll share some straightforward steps to create a logic model in this post. These steps have been adapted from The Compass For SBA website. The Compass is a curated collection of social and behavior change (SBC) resources. Who should be involved? Your logic model should be co-created by team members and leadership staff. Any team member who will be overseeing the evaluation or research related to the project and any leadership staff who are closely connected to the project should participate in this effort. It is great to have senior leadership staff as part of the development team because this helps get internal buy. Everyone is then aligned on the inputs, outcomes, and plans for measuring the desired results. What timeframe do I need to create a logic model? Logic models are ideally created at the beginning of a...

What’s the Logic Model?

August 9, 2021November 16, 2021 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

In grad school, my thesis advisor taught me about one of the most valuable tools I have ever used in my career: the logic model. I remember being overwhelmed by the technical nature of it, but once I got out of the weeds, I absolutely fell in love with this tool and now feel like I’m almost a logic model evangelist. If you stick with me, I can show you why I feel so strongly about the logic model and, more importantly, the process that one goes through to create it. As a tool, a logic model is beneficial when creating a new product or service for your audience. Logic models can also help you to examine an existing product or service to see if it is achieving the desired outcomes. It allows a team to challenge assumptions and look for possible changes that you need to make to an existing product, program, or service. So what is a logic model? The short...