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How Unmet Desire Surveys Can Advance Learning Agendas and Strengthen Evidence-Based Policymaking

10.24.22 | 7 min read | 文字亚当·莱文（Adam Levine）

Summary

2018年基于循证决策法的基础（证据法）promotes a culture of evidence within federal agencies. A central part of that culture entails new collaboration between decision-makers and those with diverse forms of expertise inside and outside of the federal government. Federal chief evaluation officers lead these efforts, yet they face challenges getting buy-in from agency staff and in obtaining sufficient resources. One tool to overcome these challenges is an “unmet desire survey,” which prompts agency staff to reflect on how the success of their programs relates to what is happening in other agencies and outside government, as well as consider what information about these other programs and organizations would help their work be more effective. The unmet desire survey is an important data-gathering mechanism and also encourages evaluation officers to engage in matchmaking between agency staff and people who have the information they desire. Using existing authorities and resources, agencies can pilot unmet desire surveys as a concrete mechanism for advancing federal learning agendas in a way that builds buy-in by directly meeting the needs of agency staff.

Challenge and Opportunity

A core mission of the Evidence Act is to foster a culture of evidence-based decision-making within federal agencies. Since the problems agencies tackle are multidimensional, with the success of one government program often depending on the performance of others, new collaborative relationships between decision-makers in the federal government and those in other agencies and in organizations outside the federal government are essential to realizing the Evidence Act’s vision. Indeed, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) implementation guidance stresses that learning agendas are “an opportunity to align efforts and promote interagency collaboration in areas of joint focus or shared populations or goals” (OMB M-19-23），并且一种证据文化“不能仅在顶部或孤立的分析办公室发生，而必须嵌入每个机构中……并由代表美国人民服务的勤奋公务员采用”（OMB M-21-27).

联邦机构的首席评估官是培养证据文化的主要人物。然而，他们和他们的评估人员面临许多挑战，包括从代理人员那里获得买入，了解超出这些办公室组织界限的计划和运营办公室的需求以及资源有限。确实，OMB指导承认that many agency staff may view learning agendas as just another compliance exercise.

This memo proposes a flexible tool that evaluation officers can use to generate buy-in among agency staff and leadership while also promoting collaboration as emphasized in OMB guidance and in the Evidence Act. The tool, which has already proven valuable in地方政府and in the非营利部门，称为“未满足的欲望调查”。该调查通过促使员工考虑以下内容来衡量对协作的愿望：

• 程序的成功与世界卫生大会吗t is happening elsewhere? Is there information about other programs within the government and/or outside organizations that would help improve the effectiveness of your work? What kinds of people from these other agencies/organizations would be helpful to connect with?
• Are you looking for informal collaboration (oriented toward knowledge exchange) or formal collaboration (oriented toward projects with shared ownership, decision-making authority, and accountability)?
• What hesitations (perhaps due to prior experiences, lack of explicit permission, stereotypes, and so on) do you have about interacting with other stakeholders?
• 您认为他们可能对与您互动有什么犹豫？
• Why do you think these collaborations don’t already exist?

未满足的欲望调查会引起有关连接需求的关键见解，并且非常灵活。例如，在上面提出的第一个问题中，评估人员可以选择向员工询问新信息，这对any计划或仅与与计划的最重点相关的信息。换句话说，未满足的欲望调查不必在盘子中增加一件事。相反，它们可用于加速与当前学习优先级直接相关的协作。

未满足的欲望调查还合法化了非正式的协作关系。常常要求在政策领域进行新的合作，立即将其结构化的会议纳入过度结构化的会议，而这些会议未能揭示有希望的联合学习和解决问题的领域。各个政府机构的会议通常是关于每个组织活动的脚本演讲，几乎没有洞察他们可以搭档以取得更好成果的方式。与外部研究专家的政策讨论倾向于专注于正式的评估和长期研究项目，这些项目不会在短期内浮出水面加速学习。相比之下，未满足的欲望显式调查使多样化思想家可能只想进行非正式知识交流而不是正式事件或伙伴关系的思想合法化。确实，即使是单一的对话可以极大地影响决策者, and, of course, so can更密集的关系。

同时为促进新collaborat在线平台ive relationships have been先前提出的, they have not achieved uptake at scale among federal policymakers. One reason for this is that the problem that needs to be solved is both factual and relational. In other words, the issue isn’t simply that strangers do not知道彼此 - 陌生人并不总是知道如何讲话彼此。人们关心别人与他们的关系以及他们是否可以成功与他人建立联系。关系不确定性通常停止people from interacting with others they do not know. This is why unmet desire surveys also include questions that directly measure hesitations about interacting with people from other agencies and organizations.

进行调查后，评估人员可以使用调查数据进行对接：具有相似目标但专业知识的人之间的经纪联系，并帮助克服对关系的不确定性，以便新的跨机构和跨部门的协作关系可以扎根。总而言之，通过故意询问与具有各种相关专业形式的其他人的联系，然后重新建立这些联系 - 评估人员可以在可能不考虑评估和证据建设作为其核心责任的一部分的人们中产生更大的热情和所有权。

行动计划

Using existing authorities and resources, federal evaluation officers can take three steps to position unmet desire surveys as a standard component of the government’s evidence toolbox.

Step 1. Design and implement pilot unmet desire surveys.

首席评估官在其代理机构内未满足的欲望调查处于良好状态。尽管个人评估官可以独立地设计未满足的欲望调查，但通过评估官员委员会一起设计基线调查模板可能会更富有成果。然后，首席评估官可以与他们的团队合作，以使基准模板适应其机构，包括确定哪些代理人员优先级，以及最佳的表达特定问题的方法（例如，关于员工想要改善联系的连接类型，他们的工作有效性或要问的犹豫类型）。鉴于问题内容非常灵活，因此未满足的欲望调查可以直接加速学习议程并同时建立买入。因此，它们可以产生有形的，具体的收益，而前期成本很少。

Step 2. Meet unmet desires by matchmaking.

进行试点调查后，首席评估官应通过对接会对其结果采取行动。没有新的拨款，有几种方法可以做到这一点。一种是用于代理机构内的评估团队，以进行非正式，低升的对接（实施调查的人也是初始婚介者）的早期概念证明。第二种选择是通过灵活的招聘机制（例如，通过《政府间人事法》）带来短期媒人。然后，记录成功的成功和经验教训，为使用特定代理机构特定的酌处资金聘请一个或多个内部媒人作为长期或员工任命奠定了基础。

步骤3.从飞行员那里收集有关成功和教训的信息。

未满足的欲望调查可能会很棘手，因为他们需要询问员工有关他们可能不习惯考虑的主题。通常需要进行反复试验，以找出询问员工实质性目标以及他们对与不认识的人互动的犹豫的最佳方法。试行未完成的欲望调查和跟进对接不仅可以证明价值（例如，通过这些综合努力促进了新的合作关系的影响），以证明进一步的投资是合理的，而且还暗示了评估线索如何最好地结构未来未满足的欲望调查以及后来的对接。

结论

一项未满足的欲望调查是一种适应性的工具，可以揭示连接和协作的富有成果的途径。确实，未满足的欲望调查利用了scienceof collaboration by ensuring that efforts to broker connections among strangers consider both substantive goals and uncertainty about relationality. Chief evaluation officers can pilot unmet desire surveys using existing authorities and resources, and then use the information gathered to identify opportunities for productive matchmaking. Ultimately, positioning the survey as a standard component of the government’s evidence toolbox has great potential to support agency staff in advancing federal learning agendas and building a robust culture of evidence across the U.S. government.