Resource: Most Significant Change

Since it's conception in the mid-1990s, the Most Significant Change (MSC) evaluation tool has become a celebrity of the international development world. As aid horror stories entered the public consciousness, the sector was looking for new ways to qualitatively measure the impact they were having on people's lives.

The Australian disability sector is currently undergoing a period of significant change.  It is thus more important than ever to examine how services we deliver are affecting the lives of people we work for. MSC is a particularly useful when there is diversity in both service implementation and outcomes. Its positive bias allows organisations to determine the conditions under which they produce the best results.

It begins by collecting stories of the most valued change in customer's lives since they began using the service. These stories then travel up the organisation's hierarchy, with each group filtering down the number of stories until they finally select just one. Conversations that emerge during the selection process are as (if not more) important than the chosen story itself. The process engrains learning and reflections into the organisation, while aligning the vision for the service's future.

MSC's founders have warned that it is not a stand-alone evaluation tool. It is designed to supplement other evaluation efforts, particularly ones that focus on quantitative data collection. The stories are also not for communication purposes, as this will negatively influence the selection process.

The Overseas Development Institute has created this brief toolkit, which includes step-by-step instructions for implementing MSC. If you are really keen to learn more, you can also download this guide developed by the founders.

Happy Evaluating!