There is an emerging need for evaluators to assist with strategic decision making in organizations committed to ongoing learning and renewal. While some evaluators have developed rapid-response techniques to assist decision-makers fine tune their programs, new evaluation techniques are required to serve the needs of learning organizations which are committed to systems thinking as a way of improving their effectiveness. This article argues that evaluators can make major contributions to strategic decision- making by using procedures which clarify the nature of programs in their trial stage and outline the implications of implementing the program for the organization as a whole. A case study of the use of these procedures in an educational setting is outlined for the purposes of illustration.

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The work of evaluators is constantly being reshaped in recognition of changes in the information needs of stakeholders. New thinking about the functioning of organizations poses a challenge for evaluators to provide information to make organizations more effective in terms of their structure, coordination, and delivery of programs and services. While the ways in which evaluation can serve the needs of organizational management have been well documented, far less attention has been given to the evaluation needs of leaders. This paper conceptualizes key differences between management and leadership as a basis for suggesting ways in which evaluators might operate to serve the decision making needs of organizational leaders.

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There has been an increasing interest in evaluation strategies that encourage utilization. This article outlines a set of guiding principles that can lead to the more effective instrumental use of evaluation findings. These principles suggest that an evaluator needs to be involved in the action and change that emerge from the evaluation findings. These findings imply an extension of the range of expertise over and above skills currently associated with an effective evaluator, to include those expected of an effective change agent within agencies and organizations.This article is designed to contribute to the debate about increasing the impact of evaluations. Specifically, it is concerned with strategies designed to increase the instrumental use of program evaluation findings, that is, action consistent with the conclusions or recommendations that emerge from an evaluative activity.Elsewhere, we have put forward a metamodel of evaluation usage (Owen 1992) in which enlightenment represents an essential &dquo;first-order&dquo; use. Enlightenment means that audiences gain fundamental knowledge of the plan and conduct of the evaluation and a conceptual understanding of the findings related to the intervention. In some evaluations, particularly those associated with policy (Weiss 1988) and megaprograms (Owen 1993), enlightenment represents a legitimate end point in an evaluation chain. The lack of a clear conceptualization of enlightenment has meant that, until recently, it has not