Reflecting on Organizational Impact in Informal STEM Education
The end of the calendar year brings for many people a period of reflection on the year passed and planning for the year ahead. You may be setting your New Years Resolutions or writing up your annual report. It can be an important time to consider your systems and think about what to refocus your energy on in the coming year.
For informal STEM learning organizations, you might be compiling metrics like the number of participants served across programming or annual funding raised. Much like in evaluation, where we like to look beyond metrics to other measures of effectiveness (e.g., building STEM identity, increasing awareness of STEM careers), I’d encourage you to think about other ways your organization might identify and reflect on your progress.
So, I’ve compiled a list of potential questions for you to ask yourself to assess your personal and organizational impact. I hope these provide some food for thought as you get ready for a period of rest followed by a brand new year.
The 2022 Year In Review: Reflecting on Organizational Impact
What metrics can I collect to show the collective impact of our work? These are things like: Program hours, people served, number of programs delivered, types of programs delivered (diff programs), number of social media followers, engagement with social media posts, number of newsletter or email subscribers, and funding secured.
Who supported us this year? Funders, subscribers, partners, etc.
Did we grow this year? If so, how?
Did we offer better programs or services this year? How do we know?
What did our participants find most impactful about our programs/work this year?
What areas of our practice need to be fine-tuned in 2023?
How can we build better data systems in 2023 to collect the information we need?
What impact stories can we tell about our organization?
What am I excited about in 2023?
How am I committing to my own learning and development in 2023?
Based on what we learned in 2022, how are we committing to the betterment of our work in 2023?
Are our goals still in alignment with what we said we’d do (in our strategic plan, or other organizational planning documents)? If not, how can we set up a process for reviewing and updating them?
As an evaluator, asking good questions is a huge part of my job. That transfers to my own internal business operations as well. You may wish to use these questions to create a more formal annual or quarterly reflection process. Personally, I try and revisit my annual and quarterly goals, plus reflect on these types of questions a few times a year.
Along with grappling with these questions myself, I’ll be spending the next few days cleaning up my office, working through soooo many post-it notes, and creating a list of folks to follow up with in the new year. Then I’ll be taking some much-needed time off. I hope you will, as well.
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