Most Significant Change (MSC) is a technique that involves collecting and analysing personal accounts (stories) regarding change from the perspective of different actors involved in the project.
The most important part of the method involves organising panels of different categories of stakeholders who read and analyse the stories, and then reports about their analysis are sent to the other types of actors. The method is very useful for making different types of stakeholders understand what the others’ notion of success is, and how they may place different values on things.
HOW WE USED IT
In one of our recent evaluations, we used the Most Significant Change technique to collect stories from different types of participants in the project. This is how the technique worked as a powerful reflection mechanism for the project team.
In the project, artists worked with children and adults in challenging situations in schools and healthcare facilities for around two years. During the evaluation, we collected stories about the most significant change as observed by teachers, social workers, families and institution managers. Then, during an in-person meeting with the project team of around 20 people, we organised a workshop to reflect on the stories.
A FEW THINGS THAT WORKED
- The workshop design: participants read the stories and then rank them and explain their top choices.
- We colour-coded the stories. For each domain of change, we had a pink story, a purple story, blue, yellow, green and so on. The spectrum of colours brought out the diversity in the stories, while also making them very easy to identify in the conversation.
- We carved out time at the start of the meeting for people to read the stories individually, but together in the same room. Spending 15 minutes reading in silence didn’t feel awkward, but more like a collective deep dive.
RESULTS
Two amazing things happened in the sharing session afterwards:
First, by providing reasons for their choice of favourites, each participant lifted the conversation from the concreteness of the story to a higher conceptual level, at which they were describing change at systemic level rather than individual changes.
Then, just as important, the conversation focused less on the actions and protagonists of the stories, and much more on the perspective of the storytellers. The participants in the workshop stepped into the shoes of the storytellers and virtually their voices into the room.
AFTERTHOUGHT
Collecting MSC stories is always a nice added bonus to evaluations, because they bring out the best examples and humanise the outcomes. Using them in the workshop like this, the stories from participants became a powerful reflection tool for the project team. In all of our impact evaluations with organisations, we find that the process is more important than the deliverables, and this workshop was a really nice proof.