Graduate Students & New Evaluators TIG Week: Reading the Room: What Grad School Didn’t Teach Me About Evaluation Politics by Sara Hall

Date: Friday, August 8, 2025

This week, the members of the Graduate Students and New Evaluators (GSNE) TIG share various tips, tricks, resources, and points of view that can be helpful for students and new evaluators. We hope both evaluators, new and old, will review this material and share the resources and stories with each other.

-Liz Rojas (GSNE, Co-Chair), Christine Liboon (GSNE, Program Chair), and GSNE Leadership Team

Greetings! I’m Sara Hall, a Ph.D. student in the evaluation, statistics, and methodology program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, navigating the unpredictable world of evaluation in nonprofit and public sector settings. I want to share what I’ve learned about organizational politics, not from textbooks, but from moments when my methodology collided with office drama. To be frank, no class prepared me for the day a director whispered, “The board chair hates this program, but do your evaluation anyway.” That moment launched me into the messy undercurrent of decision-making power, interpersonal dynamics, and timing mishaps. Here are the lessons I wish someone had told me sooner.

Hot Tips

Conduct a Political Recon Mission: Map out informal influencers in addition to the org chart. Map who really makes decisions. Having these people on your side is crucial.
Timing Is Everything: Organizational timing is like comedy; bad timing kills even the best joke. I once scheduled a focus group during a site visit from the organization’s largest donor. Oops. Nobody wanted to discuss program challenges while trying to look perfect. Sometimes the most strategic move is knowing when to pause.
Build Trust Through Transparency: Present both successes and challenges with equal professionalism. When I started sharing draft instruments and asking for feedback, interest holders went from suspicious to collaborative overnight. One director thanked me for honest reporting that didn’t read like marketing material.
Use Your Political Savvy for Impact: Create multiple contingency plans and practice your de-escalation phrases. Understanding the political landscape helps you move the data, not just report it. Have phrases ready such as, “I can see this is really important to you,” and “Help me understand your perspective” in your back pocket.

Cool Tricks

Speak Everyone’s Language. Evaluation is an act of translation. Program staff want stories; finance wants numbers. Develop different elevator pitches: 30-second versions for executives, story-rich versions for staff, methodology-heavy versions for the one director obsessed with sampling strategy.
Map the Organizational Calendar. Learn natural rhythms: budget seasons (everyone’s stressed), board meetings (people pay attention to data), staff retreats (time to think about next steps). Time your recommendations to moments of influence like planning meetings or accreditation cycles. And yes, sometimes that means bypassing your original contact to speak directly with decision-makers.
Connect with Your Community. Real learning happens with people who understand the struggle. Make sure your hobnobbing efforts don’t stop with leadership – find opportunities to provide a platform for those who may not have the loudest voice.
Test the Message: I do “soft launches” with sensitive stakeholders 1-2 weeks before formal presentations. They often help me refine how I present findings and sometimes become advocates who can provide support during the actual meeting. It transforms potential adversaries into allies who feel respected and included in the evaluation process.

Rad Resources

John Bryson’s Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations teaches stakeholder mapping.
Click here to conduct your own quick evaluability assessment.
Click here to learn research-backed strategies for creating environments where people feel at ease offering original ideas, sharing different viewpoints, asking questions or admitting mistakes.
This summary of Roger Schwartz’s book The Skilled Facilitator by Srinath Ramakrishnan is a quick guide to managing group dynamics.

The secret to evaluation success isn’t just methodological excellence: it’s reading the room, building trust, and understanding that data only creates change when it speaks to the right people at the right time in the right language.

AEA is hosting GSNE Week with our colleagues in the Graduate Student and New Evaluators AEA Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from our GSNE TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the AEA365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an AEA365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to AEA365@eval.org. AEA365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.