Do you know how are you doing?

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mention health checks and most people would think of cholesterol levels or cardiograms. This week KIN held a 'Health Checks' Roundtable event to look at how member organisations judge the health of their organisational learning programmes. In this case, by 'health' we mean impact, penetration and vitality.

The first thing to emerge was the variation in how KIN members go about this. Practice ranged from a formal evaluation, with rigorous empirical evaluation based on the 'Maryland Scale' for research evidence, user surveys, the creation of 'knowledge maps', to an evaluation of online community vitality.

One of the main conclusions was that however you go about it, the measurement of the effectiveness of your interventions and support is critical. It seems that the most credible evidence, typically combines both anecdotal and empirical evidence. How you communicate the impact is equally important for buy-in and further investment (assuming that it is positive!).

KIN will be holding a further related event, under the aegis of the 'Management Buy-in' special interest group, later this year. This will look at return on investment, stakeholder engagement and change management. This will be followed by our Winter Workshop in November on the topic of 'Knowledge and Productivity'.