Evaluation Leaders make difficult decisions every day. In order to make the best decision possible, leaders must be able to sift through a vast array of information with a critical eye, determining the use and importance of every piece of information received. Leaders must be able to look at all of this information and determine which information has the most impact on their situation and which information is just interesting. Navigating through this vast array of information and determining what is useful, to what extent, and how it is useful can help inform the leaders in making effective decisions.

Vignette The Earth Day Club just finished its annual Save the Earth Day, an event held at a nearby park with programs designed to help students to better understand the environment and to engage in recycling practices. In the meeting following this even, the group decides to do their own evaluation of the event before looking at the evaluations the participants filled out. They brainstorm what they thought went well, what they thought did not go well, and based on this information, any changes they would like to see for next year's event. Although the list for what did not go well was long, the group determines that some of their ideas, like limited parking at the park, would not affect the event location in the future because the positive aspects of that location far outweighed the drawback of limited parking.

Then, they look at the participants' evaluations and determine what information supported their evaluations, what feedback is valuable for next year's planning, and what feedback is not useful. The group is able to leave their meeting with a plan for how they intend to proceed in the future given their reflection on this year's event, knowing that some information is much more valuable than other information. Consider Understanding how to use one's judgment to estimate the significance of particular information, thus determining its value.

(Knowledge) Believing that information has degrees of value depending on the context and that it is important to use one's judgment to determine to what extent and how the information may be valuable in a particular context.

(Value) Being able to use one's judgment to estimate the significance of a particular information, thus determining its value.

(Ability) Using one's judgment to estimate the significance of particular information in a specific context, thus determing its value.

What are the elements that comprise "critical evaluation"? How can you know if your evaluation you are conducting is "critical" and objective? What are signs or red-flags that your evaluation is too superficial?

Can you think of a time that you attempted to evaluate a situation, but later found out that you were missing a critical piece of the puzzle that you were not aware of? How is it that you came to find out about this, "missing puzzle piece"? What could you have done differently in your examination that could have alerted you to this information earlier? Were there signs, but you just over-looked them?

The biggest challenge for leaders today in making decisions has been said to be the need to make decisions quickly with a limited amount of time and a limited amount of information. Do you agree that this is true? If so, how can leaders over come this challenge? If you disagree, why?