The Value of Evaluation

To step back and evaluate is an act of humility. Whether personal, family, or business, there are things that seemed so right when we were planning and implementing years ago. After many activities and observations, we have to do some aligning and correcting. Evaluation is a painful process. It is more comfortable to just keep doing what we are doing.
If we do not evaluate, we face the following dangers:


A. The danger of recurring patterns of wrong systems and behavior.

Patterns are hard to break specially if coming from a strong precedence of habit and sets of responses.

Evaluate on the faithfulness to our vision, mission, values, and goals. Disrupt and align through new leadership or having willingness to adapt to new systems.


B. The danger of a decline in effectiveness and performance.

We can do things efficiently but towards the wrong goals and direction. We end up getting tired, like running a marathon without the idea where the finish line is.

Evaluate on efficiently doing the right things which result in increased effectiveness.


C. The danger of doing a series of half-baked programs.

To go on to the next activity without realizing the learnings from the previous one will leave a trace of unrefined templates. We will be producing half-baked programs.

Evaluate on re-implementing the activity with the revisions and enhancements. Re-evaluate again and re-implement until the optimum result is achieved.

Evaluate basically means "to fix the value or worth." To revisit the value of what we do is important. We cannot be good evaluators if we are on a defensive stance. We must be open and think of the higher objectives. The key is to be humble, so more value will be added to what we do.