Join us for the online unveiling of Michael Quinn Patton’s latest book, Blue Marble Evaluation: Premise & Principles.

Description: As a transdisciplinary profession, evaluation has much to offer to global change interventions that work toward a sustainable future across national boundaries, sectors, and issues. This book introduces Blue Marble evaluation, which provides a framework for developing, adapting, and evaluating major systems change initiatives involving complex networks of stakeholders. Michael Quinn Patton demonstrates how the four overarching principles and 12 operating principles of this innovative approach allow evaluators, planners, and implementers to home in on sustainability and equity issues in an intervention. Compelling case examples, bulleted review lists, charts, and 80 original exhibits and graphics connect the global and local, the human and ecological. Rooted in utilization-focused, developmental, and principles-focused evaluation, Blue Marble evaluation is designed to tackle problems outside the reach of traditional evaluation practice.

Webinar time: 17:00 UTC, 12pm EST, 11am CST

Click here to register for the webinar.

Pre-order your book now!

Evaluation for Transformative Change was the theme of the International Development Evaluation Association conference meeting in Prague September 30-October 5. Blue Marble Evaluation team members Michael Quinn Patton, Pablo Vidueira, and Glenn Page were at the conference. During this webinar, they will make connections between what emerged at the conference and Blue Marble Evaluation, including Michael's closing keynote speech on Transforming Evaluation to Evaluate Transformation and the workshop Glenn and Pablo conducted on Blue Marble Evaluation baselines.

Webinar time: 16:00 UTC / 12pm EDT / 11am CDT

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Presenters: Beverly Parsons (InSites); Lovely Dhillon (Jodevi Consulting), and Matt Keene (The Silwood Group)

Date & Time: Wednesday, September 25, 2019 @ 16:00 UTC / 12pm EDT

Description: Join the editors of the new book, Visionary Evaluation for a Sustainable, Equitable Future for this webinar. Take a journey to 2030 where Visionary Evaluatives abound and link with one another in actively bringing about a sustainable, equitable future. Utilizing a creative storytelling and visioning approach, the book brings forward the centrality of values in conjunction with evaluation in building a future of well-being for people, nature, and planet. Visionary Evaluatives are guided by six principles. The principles highlight a commitment to equity and the sustainability of nature as core values. They emphasize an orientation of humility, compassion, and transparency as Visionary Evaluatives engage with others in a world of living, entangled systems with both obvious and hidden intersectionalities. Visionary Evaluatives engage in deep praxis—mindful and challenging reflection on what is being learned through the intersection of values, iterative action and inquiry, theory, outcomes, and vision. Through this webinar, you learn how you can contribute to a sustainable, equitable future through evaluation—as a user or practitioner— and in your daily life.

Click here to view a recording of this event.

Presenter: Dr. Nicole Bowman (Mohican/Lunaape) of Bowman Performance Consulting and the Wisconsin Center for Education Research

Abstract: Prior to colonial contact, there were Indigenous peoples, principles, and pathways for living sacredly with all our relations on Mother Earth and within the universe. These traditional knowledge sources, indigenous lifestyles, and effective ways to co-exist and sustain the planet have not been completely erased. However, post-colonial values and life ways have dominated the Anthropocene for centuries and have severely caused damage, some irreparable. Learning how to “be a good relative” also applies to the evaluation ecosystem. By understanding how tribal critical theory can be applied to our systems or other work as evaluators, we can begin to work with Tribal Nations and Indigneous communities as partners without extracting the cultural and intellectual knowledge from Indigenous partners like has been extracted in a damaging way from Mother Earth. By engaging in nation-to-nation evaluations, Tribal and non-Tribal governments and evaluation policy makers and practitioners can learn one way to create authentic, responsive, and lasting relations. We must re-imagine how we can work together differently so we address the root causes that have us in climate crisis, which is why SDGs are even needed in the first place.

Details: Tuesday August 20, 2019 @ 15:00 UTC (11am EDT)

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Blue Marble Evaluation Webinar: Theory of Transformation Part 2: Case Example for Blue Marble Evaluation with Michael Quinn Patton and Jerry Hage.

May 7, 2019 @ 21:00 UTC (5pm EDT)

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Photo credit Ellen Harasimowicz

Join Christine Capra of Greater than the Sum to learn about how systems mapping can support Blue Marble Evaluations.

April 18, 2019 @ 16:00 UTC (12pm EDT)

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Join Christine Capra of Greater than the Sum to learn about how systems mapping can support Blue Marble Evaluations.

April 16, 2019 @ 15:00 UTC (11am EDT)

Click here to access a recording of this webinar.

Learn about an ongoing Blue Marble Evaluation of the Collaborative Crop Research Program with Claire Nickin.

March 26th @ 17:00 UTC (1pm EDT)

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Background Information about CCRP:

The McKnight Foundation’s Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP) funds collaborative research between smallholder farmers, leading local researchers, and development practitioners to explore solutions for sustainable, local food systems.

Join us for a discussion with Jeph Mathias and Michael Quinn Patton about one of the Blue Marble Evaluation principles - Time is of the Essence. This principle guides Blue Marble Evaluators to evaluate for long-term resilient sustainability.

March 5th @ 2:30 UTC (March 4th @ 9:30pm EST)

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Photo credit Ellen Harasimowicz

Join us to learn more about ways to get involved in the Blue Marble Evaluation Network.

February 14, 2019 @ 22:00 UTC (5pm EST)

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Join us for the third in our latest series of webinars on Blue Marble Evaluation with Michael Quinn Patton, Utilization-Focused Evaluation and Glenn G. Page, SustainaMetrix.

The Blue Marble refers to the view of Earth from space with no human-imposed boundaries. Blue Marble Evaluation watches for and interprets the implications of change efforts that are interconnected in the global system. Global Systems Change Evaluation includes attention to and analysis of the interconnection of top-down globalization processes and bottom-up processes that incorporate local knowledge and indigenous wisdom.

Global challenges like climate change, global economic interdependence, and the global food system operate beyond national borders. Global systems change initiatives are intervening from the perspective of a complex, dynamic, and interconnected world system. Blue Marble evaluation is needed to assess the effectiveness of global systems change initiatives.

This webinar will provide an overview of Blue Marble Evaluation principles and an in-depth example.

The webinar is supported by a grant from the McKnight Foundation, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Click here to access the recording of this webinar.

With Michael Quinn Patton, Utilization-Focused Evaluation and Glenn G. Page, SustainaMetrix.

The Blue Marble refers to the view of Earth from space with no human-imposed boundaries. Blue Marble Evaluation watches for and interprets the implications of change efforts that are interconnected in the global system. Global Systems Change Evaluation includes attention to and analysis of the interconnection of top-down globalization processes and bottom-up processes that incorporate local knowledge and indigenous wisdom.

Global challenges like climate change, global economic interdependence, and the global food system operate beyond national borders. Global systems change initiatives are intervening from the perspective of a complex, dynamic, and interconnected world system. Blue Marble evaluation is needed to assess the effectiveness of global systems change initiatives.

This webinar will provide an overview of Blue Marble Evaluation principles and an in-depth example based on the Gulf of Maine.

Click here to access a recording of the webinar.

The webinar is supported by a grant from the McKnight Foundation, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

With Michael Quinn Patton, Utilization-Focused Evaluation and Glenn G. Page, SustainaMetrix

Click here to download the recording of this webinar.

December 24 is the 50th anniversary of the first photo of Earthrise from the moon. Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts -- Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders -- held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and moon as seen from their spacecraft. One of those photos showed Earthrise for the first time.

We will use this celebratory occasion to introduce and explain Blue Marble Evaluation, an approach and framework for evaluating global systems change initiatives. Global challenges like climate change, global economic interdependence, and the global food system operate beyond national borders. Global systems change initiatives are intervening from the perspective of a complex, dynamic, and interconnected world system. Blue Marble evaluation is needed to assess the effectiveness of global systems change initiatives.

The webinar is supported by a grant from the McKnight Foundation, Minneapolis, Minnesota.