How to, and How Not to, Evaluate Innovation - Evaluation Vol. 8, No.1

Many traditional evaluation methods, including most performance
measurement approaches, inhibit rather than support actual innovation. This
article discusses the nature of innovation, identifies limitations of traditional
evaluation approaches for assessing innovation and proposes an alternative
model of evaluation consistent with the nature of innovation.
Most attempts at innovation, by definition, are risky and should ‘fail’ –
otherwise they are using safe, rather than unknown or truly innovative
approaches. A few key impacts by a minority of projects or participants may
be much more meaningful than changes in mean (or average) scores. Yet the
most common measure of programme impact is the mean. In contrast, this
article suggests that evaluation of innovation should identify the minority of
situations where real impact has occurred and the reasons for this. This is in
keeping with the approach venture capitalists typically take where they
expect most of their investments to ‘fail’, but to be compensated by major
gains on just a few.