Doing Needs Assessments

Tips on developing a needs assessment questionnaire. Sometimes it will be useful to develop a needs assessment questionnaire, so following are some guides in checklist format for deriving a useful one:

	1.	Make certain that the questions are about results, not about Processes or Inputs.
	2.	Ask about perceptions of gaps in results for both dimensions—What Is and What Should Be.
	3.	Ask questions about the three levels of needs:
		•   external contributions (Mega)
		•   organizational contributions (Macro)
		•   building-block internal and operational results (Micro)
	4.	Have evidence of appropriate validity and reliability of the questions and the sample.
	5.	Make the questionnaire long enough to get reliable responses, but short enough that people will actually respond.
	6.	Use an approach that makes it clear to respondents exactly what is wanted. People usually don’t want to write long answers, so a checklist or multiple-choice format will reduce their burden while making the questionnaire easier to score.
	7.	Don’t ask questions that reveal, directly or indirectly, a bias. Don’t use the data-collection vehicle to set up the responses you really want.
	8.	Ask several questions about each dimension or issue. Ask about each concern in different ways to increase the liability of responses. Basing any decision on answers to one question is risky.
	9.	Try out the data-collection instrument on a sample group to identify problems in meaning, coverage, and scorability. Revise it as required. (This step is the same as the sixth step in the problem-solving model, continuous improvement.)

When collecting performance (or “hard” data):

	10.	Make certain the data collected relate to important questions for which you want answers.
	11.	Assure yourself that the data are collected correctly and that the methods used for gathering it and reporting it are free of any bias.
	12.	Assure yourself that the data are based on enough observations to make them reliable, not a one-shot happening.
	13.	Make certain that the data can be independently verified and cross-checked.

When the hard data and soft data disagree. Sometimes there will be differences between the “hard” performance data and the “soft” perception data. When this disagreement happens, probe deeper. Both types of data are important because sometimes personal observations find things that the hard data collection did not ask for or collect and this gives you the opportunity to see if there is something substantial to the perceptions. With a dialog with your planning partners, decide which data are more useful.

Having the data from these will be basic to your evaluation where one compares obtained results with intentions.

Applying Needs Assessment Data Collection and Application to an Entire Organization

When a need is defined as a gap between current and desired/required results, this allows for some important applications; doing an organizational assessment of needs.

When applying needs assessment to a large organization, the gaps-in-results may be determined for each of the planning/results areas: Mega/Outcomes, Macro/Outputs, and Micro/Products as seen in Figure 7.4.

Figure 7.4. The Organizational Elements Model is arrayed on two levels—What Should Be and What Is—and may be used to diagnose organizations.¹²

By collecting needs data for the three levels of results, one can identify the gaps that exist, prioritize each, and then use this to define gaps and areas for organizational improvement. When the gaps exist at the Mega level, then changes could be considered for the Macro, Micro, and then Processes and Inputs levels. This would allow for the alignment and linking that is required for choosing organizational success based on Mega Thinking and Planning.

By using this schema, one might easily see that any gaps in results at below the Mega level must be linked and aligned with the levels above. The nature of the organizational system—starting at Mega—is vital, and this framework helps everyone see the overall context for thinking, planning, doing, delivering, and evaluating.

To use with an organization as a kind of “organizational analysis,” use the two-tiered framework in Figure 7.4 and sort the date concerning gaps in results into the proper boxes. When you get the data inserted, you can see what is missing (empty cells or incomplete data) and if the data link from Mega to Macro to Micro to Process to Input. This sounds a bit complex, but it isn’t. And you will note where there are disconnects and problems.

Selecting your needs assessment level. Figure 7.5 provides decisions you should make.

It is important that if you start your needs assessment at any other level than Mega you either know that what you use, do, produce, and deliver will add measurable value to society or that you are willing to risk that it will.

Figure 7.5. A job aid for deciding the level of your needs assessment.¹³

Steps in doing a useful Mega/Ideal Vision level needs assessment. Table 7.2 lists the steps for performing a Mega level needs assessment and a management “score card” for scheduling and tracking progress.

Table 7.2. Steps in conducting a Mega level needs assessment.

The same rationale is used for doing a needs assessment for each level of planning and results (see Table 7.3 and Table 7.4). This assessment data will allow you to develop a practical and justifiable mission objective:

Table 7.3. Steps in conducting a Macro level needs assessment.

The same thinking and process holds as you move down to Micro level needs assessment.

Table 7.4. Steps in conducting a Micro level needs assessment.

By collecting valid needs—gaps in results—data, you now have (1) performance criteria for what has to be accomplished and (2) data for calculating value added.

Mega planning and needs assessment are not a linear, rigid, or lock-step approach. Relating Means and Ends (Figure 7.6) is a dynamic—not linear, not lock-step—relationship within an organization. An end, or result, in the development process, might start with a means or activity that in turn delivers another end. Means and ends should be linked, related, and aligned to move increasingly toward Mega as shown again in Figure 7.6.

Figure 7.6. The dynamic nature of Means and Ends when doing needs assessment.¹⁴