Forget the Judgment. It's Time for Empowering Evaluation

Hey everyone,

I was in a workshop today (7 November 2025 in Sepidan, Fars Province, Iran) talking about the "generations of evaluation," and it got me fired up. We traced the path from simply counting things (1st gen), to describing them (2nd gen), to making top-down judgments (3rd gen).

Then we got to the game-changer: the shift toward collaborative, negotiated evaluation (the classic 4th gen). This is where we start handing the microphone to the community.

But I want to propose we take it a step further. The latest evolution isn't just about collaboration—it's about Empowering Evaluation.

This is the mindset we need for genuine, community-based facilitation.

What is Empowering Evaluation?

Let's be honest. The word "evaluation" can still make people tense. It hints at a report card, an external verdict, a pass/fail grade. Empowering Evaluation flips that script entirely.

It's not an audit; it's a process of co-creation and capacity building.

The goal isn't to produce a dusty report for a funder. The goal is to strengthen the community's own ability to understand, reflect, and direct its future. As a facilitator, my role isn't to be the judge, but to be a guide who helps the community build its own "learning muscles."

How is this Different?

- Old Way (Judgment): "Here's what you did well and poorly."

- Empowering Way: "What have we learned together? What power and knowledge do we now have to move forward?"

How to Practice Empowering Evaluation in Your Community Work

This isn't about complex metrics; it's about intentional practice.

1. Start with "Why Us?": From day one, frame the evaluation as for and by the community. Ask: "What do we need to learn to make this work more powerful for us?"

2. Co-design the Questions: Don't walk in with a pre-made survey. Facilitate a session where community members decide what success looks like and what questions are meaningful to ask. Their values drive the process.

3. Use Your Facilitation Tools for Reflection: Turn your regular meetings into reflective practice. Use simple tools like:

 - "What? So What? Now What?": What happened? What does it mean? What should we do based on that learning?

 - Appreciative Inquiry: Instead of focusing on problems, ask: "What's working best right now? How do we get more of that?"

 - Most Significant Change Stories: Collect and discuss stories of change, then have the group itself decide which stories were the most significant and why.

4. My Role as the Facilitator? A Mirror and a Bridge.

 - I am a mirror, reflecting back the patterns, strengths, and questions I hear from the group.

 - I am a bridge, connecting different perspectives within the community and linking their learning to actionable next steps.

The ultimate success of an Empowering Evaluation is when the community no longer needs me to facilitate the reflection—when asking "How are we doing?" and "What should we change?" becomes a natural, self-sustaining part of their culture.

That's the real goal: not a good evaluation report, but an empowered, self-aware, and adaptive community.

What are your thoughts? How have you seen evaluation empower—or disempower—a community you're part of?

Let's chat in the comments!

AI has helped me in arranging the text.