Better together

Good communication is important if you want an evaluation to be useful. There is too much bad communication in the world of evaluation. We have a big jargon problem, hiding our work behind pompous labels and acronyms, and presenting our findings so elegantly that no-one understands what we really mean.

The latest evaluation conference I attended was called “Transdisciplinarity – impulses for and through evaluation”. That is my translation, but believe me, it sounds just as arcane in its original language. Wouldn’t it be a good idea for evaluators to express themselves more clearly?

At this very moment I am in the middle of my long train journey from Berlin to Rimini. I will attend the 2024 biennial conference of the European Evaluation Society (EES). It is called “Better together: Collaborative thought and action for better evaluation”. Yes! What a refreshing difference. To make sure the title is not just an empty motto, the organisers have made it a requirement for every panel to include junior evaluators and evaluators from the global South. Very much looking forward to it!