Making the Leap — Consulting to Practice
In September, I stepped into the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula office in Menlo Park, CA to interview for a new position — Senior Director of Impact & Evaluation. I thought I would be a good fit for the role, and had the requisite butterflies in my stomach — the kind that arrive when something valuable is at stake.
For the past seven years, I had traversed the U.S. consulting for mid-sized to large foundation leaders committed to using data to generate greater impact. I supported long-term, systems change efforts like The California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities initiative; a place-based post-secondary success initiative in Grand Rapids, MI; and strategic philanthropy efforts of several teams at The Kresge Foundation.
While I loved working on a variety of projects, my favorites were Developmental Evaluations, simply referred to by practitioners as “DE.” I craved the fast-paced, rapid cycle learning core to doing exemplary DE; and the satisfaction of being embedded in the front line work. At our best, we started to think like and be treated as though we were part of the strategy team. We understood what decisions program staff had to make and when. As a result, we collected and analyzed data in ways that were informative, actionable, and led to tangible change (more on that in a later post).
As my practice of DE deepened, I felt drawn closer to the front lines of social change work. After 10 years of living in Silicon Valley, inequities in my backyard had become too great to ignore. Restlessness and relentless optimism led me to the Boys & Girls Clubs offices that day.
Now, I am committed to turning the ideas I had as a consultant into practice to ensure that all kids who grow up in Silicon Valley have opportunities to succeed in school and live a fulfilling life.
Every day I learn. I grow. I change. Learning for Change is the place I share an honest account of what I am learning about working at the intersection of strategy, evaluation, and organizational learning with you.
