A mindset of service: M&E systems that win accolades from project management teams

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) specialists often lament that the rest of the project team does not appreciate M&E work.

What evidence do they cite for leveling this charge?

And, assuming that M&E specialists are right about the lack of appreciation, might they themselves be to blame?

More importantly, what concrete steps can be taken to win non-M&E project team members over – even gain their accolades – when it comes to M&E?

[RELATED RESOURCE: If you’re not sure why project teams should appreciate M&E in the first place, download the Basics of M&E: A cheat sheet for beginners or read this article that includes a description of the purpose that M&E serves.]

Let’s discuss.

Innocent until proven guilty (or what is the justification for this accusation?)

M&E specialists cite numerous examples as evidence of the lack of appreciation for their work.

They note, for example, that project leadership teams do not make the necessary budget available for M&E activities; yet, they expect the M&E function to produce results.

As further evidence of the lack of appreciation for their work, M&E specialists cite the reluctance of project management – and sometimes even of donors – to capture the lessons learned from project implementation and translate them into follow-on project planning.

Furthermore, the lament of M&E team members goes, project teams often see M&E as a tick-box exercise. That is, as “[an] activity…performed perfunctorily and with resignation, more to serve a bureaucratic expediency than to accomplish any higher purpose” (The Free Dictionary 2011).

• In the context of M&E for international development projects, the ‘bureaucracy’ being served is typically the project’s overseas donor(s).
• Similarly, community development projects and nonprofits seek to ensure that their funders’ ‘boxes’ for M&E are ‘ticked’ off as having been done.
• In both these and other contexts, the ‘box-ticking’ is typically concerned with meeting reporting requirements, thus the rush to.

The sentiment underlying the complaint of M&E specialists is that once those requirements have been met at the surface level, like a burden to be quickly shrugged off, the project team carries on without recognizing the utility of M&E for project steering purposes.

To add insult to injury, according to M&E specialists the M&E function even gets blamed for poor project results or accused of serving an overly intrusive investigative function.

And the list goes on….

Um, maybe look in the mirror first, M&E Specialist?

I get what M&E specialists are saying I’ve been there. “I’ve even worked on projects where [non-M&E] colleagues felt that M&E got in the way of implementation” (Shejavali 2021a).

But do we as M&E specialists need to share at least some of the blame for the lack of appreciation of our work?

Yes indeedy, I’d say.

I’ve come across M&E systems with vastly over-articulated theories of change, lists of indicators as long as Mount Everest is high (allow me a wee bit of exaggeration, okay?), a spider’s web of components that even Charlotte would get lost in, and all manner of bells and whistles that make them look sophisticated but entirely unapproachable.

All of it created by one M&E specialist or another.

We simply do not do enough to make our M&E systems practical all while meeting the various standards of the profession and aligning with donors’ M&E requirements.

So, like Michael Jackson suggests in one of his innumerable hits, let’s start “with the [person] in the mirror… [taking a look at ourselves, then making a change]” (Ballard 1988).

Changing M&E ways for the better

The biggest change M&E specialists can make to engender appreciation for M&E’s role has to do with mindset. It has to do with how they view M&E vis-à-vis the project’s sector activities. Specifically, it has to do with viewing M&E as being in service to the project.

M&E practitioners understand that the M&E system exists to monitor, evaluate, and maximize the results of the project so, in that sense, they are already aware that M&E exists to serve the project.

But when it comes down to the details, this service orientation sometimes appears to disappear somewhere along the way and M&E reverts to habits that justified how it was traditionally viewed, namely “as a bean-counting – almost auditing – activity, concerned mostly with making demands for data, compiling numbers, and creating endless indicator tables, charts, graphs, and reports… directed at complying with the demands of far-removed donors” (Shejavali 2021b).

Instead, truly being in service implies that M&E practitioners view the rest of the project team as an internal client, with the M&E role being to serve that client in a way that makes their interaction with the M&E system as user-friendly as possible.

In practical terms, this means setting the M&E system up to be inclusive, straightforward, coherent, and seamlessly integrated with project operations. Such an approach involves the co-creation of the M&E approach, including with regard to the M&E system’s objectives and principles.

[RELATED RESOURCE: For a guide on how to set up such a system, download my free 3 no-hassle steps towards a practical and effective M&E system. The pdf guide is available via the TolaData site here (just look for the word “gift” in the first paragraph).]

Being in service to the project also implies being transparent about where the various M&E processes and tools fit in the overarching framework.

This helps make every touchpoint that internal and external stakeholders have with the M&E system one that fits into a intelligible framework and that ultimately serves the management team’s project steering and project adaptation and improvement needs.

M&E practitioners who take this approach help orient the profession towards “serving as a management tool for project decision-makers rather than being a checkbox exercise that projects only comply with in order to keep the money rolling in” (TolaData 2022).

And that translates to winning appreciation – if not accolades – from project management and the project team at large.

Conclusion

Now I’m not saying that this will win M&E fans overnight. (Sigh, if only it were that easy.)

But if M&E specialists adopt a service mindset and everything that such a mindset implies in practice – and add to that a persistent willingness to demonstrate M&E’s utility –, I can just about guarantee that the rest of the project team’s appreciation for M&E will increase many times over.

Over to you!

PRACTICAL TIP #1: Time to do some self-examination. Interrogate the mindset underlying the M&E that you (if you’re an M&E specialist) do for your project. Is it coming from a place of true service to the project?

PRACTICAL TIP #2: Analyze the elements of your project’s M&E system from a service angle. What could be done to make more of the touchpoints that project team members have with the M&E system more inclusive, straightforward, coherent, and seamlessly integrated with project operations? If you need help, you can draw from the steps outlined in the downloadable 3 no-hassle steps towards a practical and effective M&E system guide, which is available via the TolaData site here (just look for the word “gift” in the first paragraph).

PRACTICAL TIP #3: Commit to taking at least one of the steps you identified in PRACTICAL TIP #2 within the coming week.

Update of 5 May 2022: Please share your experience by commenting or leaving an emoticon reaction at the bottom of this LinkedIn post.

References:

Ballard, G. and Garrett, S. (1988). Michael Jackson: The man in the mirror. Epic Records. Official music video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PivWY9wn5ps (accessed: 4 April 2022).

Shejavali, K. (2021a, March 12). Rethinking M&E. What is it to you? LinkedIn Pulse. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rethinking-me-what-you-kandi-shejavali (accessed: 4 April 2022).

The Free Dictionary (2011) “tick box exercise”. Web page. Segen's Medical Dictionary, Farlex, Inc. Available at: https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/tick+box+exercise (accessed: 4 April 2022).

TolaData (2022, January 26). Widen your M&E horizon w/ specialist Kandi Shejavali - Part 2. Interview. TolaData. Available at: https://www.toladata.com/blog/widen-your-m-and-e-horizon-with-specialist-kandi-shejavali-part-2/ (accessed: 4 April 2022).

Photo credit:

Anthony Delanoix on Unsplash

Suggestion for how to cite this article (using APA 7 style):

Shejavali, K. (2022, April 25). A mindset of service: M&E systems that win accolades from project management teams. Blog post. RM3 Consulting. Available at: https://rm3resources.com/blog/mindset-of-service-me-systems-that-win-accolades (accessed: [insert the date that you last accessed this article at the provided link]).