2011

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In a 90 minute Roundtable session, the first rotation uses the first 45 minutes and the second rotation uses the last 45 minutes.
Roundtable Rotation I: Assessing Board Performance: Dysfunctional and Effective Boards
Roundtable Presentation 580 to be held in Lido A on Friday, Nov 4, 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM
Sponsored by the Program Theory and Theory-driven Evaluation TIG and the Business and Industry TIG
Presenter(s):
Zita Unger, Independent Consultant, zitau@bigpond.com
Abstract: Evaluation of board performance has increased considerably in recent years. More rigorous forms of accountability and compliance are standard for public company boards and more commonplace for boards in the public, private, non-profit and for-profit sectors. What matters most is what goes on inside the boardroom rather than compliance around board structures and systems. What really counts are the values, skills, attitudes and behaviors - the inner workings of boards and how decisions are made. No amount of compliance will overcome the flaws of a fundamentally dysfunctional board, flowing from inadequate expertise of directors, or excessively dominant Chairman or CEO, or a factional board. The roundtable will explore questions about performance assessment in the context of board effectiveness: What are the values of effective boards? Can evaluation enhance and build on these values? Is the purpose of performance assessment to do so? What are optimal conformance and performance measures?
Roundtable Rotation II: Planning and Strategy: Making Plans That Support Strategic Behavior in Emergent Environments
Roundtable Presentation 580 to be held in Lido A on Friday, Nov 4, 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM
Sponsored by the Program Theory and Theory-driven Evaluation TIG and the Business and Industry TIG
Presenter(s):
Dana H Taplin, ActKnowledge Inc, dtaplin@actknowledge.org
Jill K Wohlford, Lumina Foundation for Education, jwohlfor@luminafoundation.org
Patricia Patrizi, Public Private Ventures, patti@patriziassociates.com
Catherine Borgman-Arboleda, Indendent Evaluation Consultant, cborgman.arboleda@gmail.com
Abstract: This roundtable session, following from the Winter 2010 issue of New Directions for Evaluation, "Evaluating Strategy", addresses the relationship between strategy and planning methods such as theories of change and logic models. Strategic work takes unexpected turns as it progresses: evaluating the work against fixed plans may produce unfairly negative judgments. Often too the planning models serve as plans but are not operationalized effectively to support and inform internal learning and evaluation going forward. In our own work using theory of change as a planning tool, the detailed outcomes framework of causal pathways can seem too much like a blueprint, as if practitioners should know all the steps in advance. Are logic models, theories of change, and other forms of planning inimical to truly strategic behavior? At what point does attention to planning begin to undermine strategy? How do we do planning that supports strategy and learning from strategic choices?

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