Resources we like
The 'Most Significant Change' Technique : A Guide (2005)
Rick Davies and Jess Dart
The Most Significant Change (MSC) technique is a form of participatory monitoring and evaluation involving the stakeholders in all aspects of evaluation along the whole programme cycle.
This 'quick guide' is aimed at organisations, community groups, students and academics wishing to use MSC to monitor and evaluate their social change programmes.
Story Guide: Building Bridges Using Narrative Technique (2006)
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperration
Story-telling, or the narrative technique, is increasingly and broadly being used to accompany monitoring and evaluation tools in projects and partnerships and in all sectors.
This guide aims to both be thought-provoking and to offer practical examples to readers, who are aiming to build confidence and skills in both story-telling and in facilitating others in this technique.
Appreciative Inquiry Commons
Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management
The "AI Commons" is a worldwide portal created to enable sharing of academic resources and practical tools on Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and the rapidly growing discipline of positive change. The site is hosted by Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management.
The Ten Faces of Innovation (2007)
Tom Kelley
The author recounts his experience of cultural structures in organisations, and of individuals who work in them, which can act as both barriers to innovation or as catalysts which foster new ideas and experimentation.
This book provides engaging stories of real companies aiming to transform their customers' experience and can be seen as a guide to nurturing and sustaining a positive culture of innovation.
Zero Your Inbox
Merlin Mann
Merlin Mann is the editor and founder of 43Folders.com. Merlin's video will help you reduce your inbox to zero, enabling you to feel on top of the messages you receive each day!
The Wisdom of the Crowds (2004)
James Surowiecki
Wisdom of the Crowds proposes that decisions that are made collectively by groups are often better than could have been made by any single member of the group. The book presents numerous case studies and anecdotes to illustrate this, for example Francis Galton's surprise that a crowd at a county fair accurately guessed the weight of an ox when their individual guesses were averaged.
Learning Consortium on Systems and Sustainability
IUCN and the Balaton Group
The Learning Consortium is an online database of system dynamics resources, developed by IUCN’s Commission on Education and Communication, and the Balaton Group.
The database contains both theoretical (books, articles, papers and reports) and practical tools (simulations, games, models). It is based on the premise that, for policy-makers and citizens to be able to weigh the effectiveness and value of acting on the threat of an environmental risk eg climate change, they need to have a good understanding of the basic mechanics of natural systems, an appreciation of the implications of uncertainty about key features, and a clear vision of the viability of potential solutions. Recent studies have strongly suggested that most people do not have this understanding. This database aims to provide an opportunity for system dynamics-based learning to help build people’s understanding of natural systems so they can more effectively assess potential solutions to environmental dilemmas.
