Sean’s post illuminates a key issue facing the sector today. Moneyball is required reading at the company I co-founded—and for good reason. As Sean points out, this book, along with Freakonomics, offers a helpful primer on how to press beyond intuition and conventional wisdom when trying to determine what works and why. In order to truly develop and replicate best practices in the human services sector, we too must embrace this way of thinking and strive toward (while recognizing the limitations of) an evidence based approach to all aspects of our work. Not just in fundraising, but also in the way we manage and deliver services. This isn’t without risks, however. When it comes to service delivery, like fundraisers and their rules of thumb, convention tells us to stick with what appears to be working. Eventually, we do what everyone else does because everyone else is doing it. It is really hard to step away from the norm and pursue a new path with the fervor and diligence that is required to succeed against the odds – even if you believe (or know) that it is the right thing to do. As practitioners, we often fail to ask the questions or press the issue, we don’t have sufficient access to or interest in the data, and therefore, we don’t truly know whether programs and services are having the impact that we assume they are. A Moneyball or “evidence-based” approach, gives us the opportunity to use real data that provides a more accurate depiction of where a program stands. It encourages us to realize that data can be a tool that informs our daily approach to our work. Sounds simple, but this is a determination that must be consistently made and fiercely defended at every level of an organization for it to succeed. So, as Sean accurately points out, metrics may not give us the magical answer to the big questions looming over us today. But even if the application of metrics does nothing more than promote a different way of looking at things and open our eyes to what is really going on in our organizations and in our industry, then that alone would seem to justify taking the risk of unconventional, evidence-based thinking. And while Mark Twain was a genius in his own right, maybe we should look to Galileo for a little insight in this regard with his declaration that we “Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so” – a phrase that is more commandment than aphorism for the true believers!
Adrian Bordone
Co-Founder and Vice President of Social Solutions
COMMENTS
BY Adrian Bordone
ON September 26, 2008 01:33 PM
Sean’s post illuminates a key issue facing the sector today. Moneyball is required reading at the company I co-founded—and for good reason. As Sean points out, this book, along with Freakonomics, offers a helpful primer on how to press beyond intuition and conventional wisdom when trying to determine what works and why. In order to truly develop and replicate best practices in the human services sector, we too must embrace this way of thinking and strive toward (while recognizing the limitations of) an evidence based approach to all aspects of our work. Not just in fundraising, but also in the way we manage and deliver services. This isn’t without risks, however. When it comes to service delivery, like fundraisers and their rules of thumb, convention tells us to stick with what appears to be working. Eventually, we do what everyone else does because everyone else is doing it. It is really hard to step away from the norm and pursue a new path with the fervor and diligence that is required to succeed against the odds – even if you believe (or know) that it is the right thing to do. As practitioners, we often fail to ask the questions or press the issue, we don’t have sufficient access to or interest in the data, and therefore, we don’t truly know whether programs and services are having the impact that we assume they are. A Moneyball or “evidence-based” approach, gives us the opportunity to use real data that provides a more accurate depiction of where a program stands. It encourages us to realize that data can be a tool that informs our daily approach to our work. Sounds simple, but this is a determination that must be consistently made and fiercely defended at every level of an organization for it to succeed. So, as Sean accurately points out, metrics may not give us the magical answer to the big questions looming over us today. But even if the application of metrics does nothing more than promote a different way of looking at things and open our eyes to what is really going on in our organizations and in our industry, then that alone would seem to justify taking the risk of unconventional, evidence-based thinking. And while Mark Twain was a genius in his own right, maybe we should look to Galileo for a little insight in this regard with his declaration that we “Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so” – a phrase that is more commandment than aphorism for the true believers!
Adrian Bordone
Co-Founder and Vice President of Social Solutions