Well, it’s been a while. My last concerted effort at blogging was in 2013 when I launched the 52×5 project. I set out to blog once every workday for an entire year. I sputtered out fairly quickly. Projects got in the way. Writing projects took precedent. In retrospect, my goal was too ambitious. Evaluating this undertaking in a summative sense would suggest it to be an utter failure. Neither its objectives nor its goals were met.
Evaluating my efforts developmentally might lead one to render a different judgment. To do that we would have to look to the reasons for undertaking the project and its activities in the first place. At the time, I knew I had several writing projects coming online, and so, I had wanted to develop myself as a writer. I saw blogging as a means to stretching my writing muscles and warming up for my writing projects; setting out to write 52×5 posts was only a means to an end. And at that, I’ve some demonstrable success.
Between now and then, I’ve been busy preparing manuscripts for publication. I also went through the credentialing process with the Canadian Evaluation Society and was successfully awarded the Credentialed Evaluator designation. All the while, I finished three major evaluation projects—of which two were developmental evaluation projects.
Moving forward, I hope you will find a renewed energy on this blog. There’s much that I hope to share on evaluation theory, principles, and practices—especially those that operate at the intersections of design, evaluation, and social innovation. And I can’t wait to get started. Only this time I won’t commit to as ambitious a publishing schedule as I had before.
Please say hi. It’s been a while!
Onwards,
Chi
Dr. Chi Yan Lam 
3 replies on “A Developmental Reflection and to a New Beginning.”
Chi, welcome back to the blogosphere!
It is hard to maintain blogging momentum, but that is the case with many of the things we pursue in life. Other things take over, and so they should.
A great example of why rigid goal-based evaluation makes no sense in a world where we truly are learning as we go and jumping on new possibilities as they arise.
I love targets for their motivational properties; success is a decent surge toward them, or in a direction you needed to go, even if you didn’t know the direction or the destination when you set forth.
Blog on! 🙂
Jane
HI, my friend! You are a great inspiration for many of us (for me, for sure!) as I´m still struggling to return to the blogosphere. All the best, and I will try to find more and more strength in your example.
Hasta la vista! 😉
Pablo
You HAVE been busy! Congratulations on all
your accomplishments and welcome back to blogging! 🙂