…and a pebble in the hand of a fool. These are not my words, but those of Joseph Roux, a French Catholic parish priest, poet, and philologist.
In this post, I’ll share a collection of quotations related to evaluation. Now, I’m hardly the first blogger to post of list of favorite quotes. Admittedly, though, I spend more time collecting writing than producing it, although I do love engaging in the latter. And in thinking back to an early post in which I studied reasons other evaluation bloggers blog, I remembered that several do so to create a repository of their work and ideas. As I’m a collector/curator at heart, this blog will soon become my repository.
Evaluate what you want — because what gets measured, gets produced.
If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you are doing.
Feelings are more dangerous than ideas, because they aren’t susceptible to rational evaluation. They grow quietly, spreading underground, and erupt suddenly, all over the place.
What gets measured gets done, what gets measured and fed back gets done well, what gets rewarded gets repeated.
You get what you measure. Measure the wrong thing and you get the wrong behaviors.
When dealing with numerical data, approximately right is better than precisely wrong.
Continuous improvement requires systematic evaluation. Continuous improvement requires unfiltered evaluation.
My mind is made up, don’t confuse me with the facts!
We want the facts to fit the preconceptions. When they don’t it is easier to ignore the facts than to change the preconceptions.
Any measurement must take into account the position of the observer. There is no such thing as measurement absolute, there is only measurement relative.
A pithy quote can inspire us, compel us into action, challenge or confirm our thinking, and stimulate our conversations. I’ll start the conversation with one of my favorites: True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information. These words attributed to Winston Churchill resonate with me as I characterize evaluation work as “messy.” Mine is not the most erudite description to be sure, but it gets the point across. Churchill, of course, was possessed of the power of eloquence.
Will you continue the conversation by identifying your favorite quote, or adding one to the list?
Just what I needed today thank you.