Progress You Can See

We all measure progress toward our individual goals every day, whether we recognize it or not. This book provides a proven process for incorporating measuring into collective action for social change. Measuring has the potential to unlock paths to shared purpose; to motivate learning and continuous improvement in the face of change and complexity. Measurement is powerful when it provides focus and clarity with respect to what is necessary for systemic change in relation to specific outcomes. Unfortunately, misguided and extractive measurement processes have too often hamstrung, rather than enabled meaningful social change.

This is a book about the power of a values-based, systems-oriented, contextually derived, participatory measurement process to drive changes in social systems that result in measurable changes in behavior. It is based on over 25 years of experience developing, facilitating, and implementing You Get What You Measure (YGWYM), a unique approach trademarked by Yellow Wood Associates. YGWYM has been used by federal, state and local governments, non-profit organizations, environmental groups, citizen groups, businesses, foundations and their grant recipients, and others to think strategically and create and implement action plans that incorporate measures from the start. YGWYM brings people with differing perspective into alignment regarding priority actions based on a systems analysis of current conditions in relation to shared goals. It creates feedback loops for information required to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions on appropriate time scales without wasting time and resources on premature testing.