Have you ever wondered how to address intangibles – especially attitudes – within OH? If yes, this update is for you: “Change Inside and Out: An Evaluator’s Guide to Outcome Harvesting + Attitude Change” (OH+AC) is now available for download. This is a revision of the 2020 trial toolkit originally published by Tearfund. The OH+AC Advisory Team* has processed learnings from twenty evaluations and forty colleague inputs, incorporating the lessons into this new Guide. 

What is OH+AC? OH+AC provides a way to meaningfully incorporate Attitude Change (AC) into OH while simultaneously upholding the OH core principles. OH+AC holds tightly to the OH definition of an outcome as an observable change in behavior while also including data about Attitude Change as an additional component within the outcome statement. “Attitude Change” is a broad term borrowed from social psychology to refer to non-observable shifts in perceptions, emotions, opinions, knowledge, assumptions, beliefs, values, spirituality, worldview, etc. 

When might OH practitioners consider Attitude Change? AC data adds value in programs where attitudinal shifts are essential to achieving outcomes, such as interreligious peace, racial and gender equity, environmental and climate justice, leadership development and many other types of programs. AC data can also contribute to multicultural validity, where attitudes are central to the worldview of the local stakeholders. For example, in a gender-focused leadership program for religious women, AC data revealed that increased confidence/courage and experiences of perceiving new spiritual guidance had catalyzed changes in leadership behavior. 

What’s new in the revised Guide? The experience-based updates include:

·  Readers: We rewrote this Guide for experienced evaluation facilitators who are already working with OH. This is what typically works best for people learning to lead an OH+AC evaluation. (However, the same is not necessarily true for people learning smaller roles such as outcome identification).

·  Planning: We’ve identified the enabling conditions needed for using OH+AC: 1) evaluation team capacity in the form of additional time and skills and 2) an ability to communicate directly with the social actors influenced by the program. We offer suggestions on how to manage these realities throughout the evaluation process.

·  Concepts: We’ve added a deeper dive into the theory of Attitude Change and its relationship to behavior, as requested by many users. 

·   Analysis: We’ve unpacked how to adapt common OH data analysis techniques to explore the relationship between behaviors and attitudes within a social change process. 

What are the options for getting involved?

·  Download the Guide.

·  Join the OH Community webinar on 3 July. 

·   Sign up to receive OH+AC news on resources, events and future learning opportunities. 

 

·   Join our learning exchange. If you are an active OH+AC practitioner, go to groups.google.com, search for the group “OH+AC Learning Exchange,” and request to join it. This collaboration will fuel the next phase of OH+AC learning!