The Success Case Method: Find Out Quickly What's Working and What's Not

The Success Case Method (SCM) offers a simple, carefully crafted way of determining how well a new organizational initiative is working. Already shown to be effective in dozens of organizations, SCM is based on five steps: focusing and planning the study; clearly defining what outcomes will be considered "success"; identifying success cases; conducting interviews to learn exactly how success was achieved; and communicating results throughout the organization.

Robert O. Brinkerhoff, Ed.D. is Professor of Counseling Psychology at Western Michigan University, where he coordinates graduate programs in human resources development. He also serves as principal consultant for Triad, Inc. in Farmington Hills, Michigan, a firm that designs and develops learning and performance improvement initiatives. His prior work experience includes a five-year stint as an officer in the U.S. Navy, a carpenter, charter-boat mate in the West Indies, grocery salesman in Puerto Rico, and factory laborer in Birmingham, England where he saw the original Beatles. He earned a doctorate at the University of Virginia in program evaluation where he also directed the Evaluation Training Consortium, an eleven-year project funded by the U.S. Office of Special Education that provided training in program evaluation to several thou- sand USOE grantees nationwide.