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

Robert O. Brinkerhoff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 2003

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brinkerhoff's Success Case Method is a clearly written practical guide to identifying changes in organizations that have a high probability of producing results. Always on the lookout for strategies that provide direction for improvement, good managers will find this book both provocative and directive in identifying effective change strategies. The many examples and step-by-step directions provide the basics that are needed to implement SCM. This book adds a very useful tool to the toolkit of managers and evaluators.

About the Author

Robert O. Brinkerhoff, Ed.D., an internationally recognized expert in evaluation and training effectiveness, has been a consultant to dozens of major companies and organizations in the United States, South Africa, Russia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia. Rob's clients include American Express, Anheuser-Busch, Anglo-American Corporation (Johannesburg), the Federal Aviation Administration, Compaq, Canadian Tire, EDS Corp., QUALCOMM, the U.S. Postal Service, and the World Bank.

Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (January 9, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576751856
• ISBN-13: 978-1576751855
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #173,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert O. Brinkerhoff, Ed.D., an internationally recognized expert in evaluation and training effectiveness, has provided consultation to dozens of major companies and organizations in the United States, South Africa, Russia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia. Some of his many clients include Anglo-American Corporation, Bank of America, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Canadian Tire, Central Intelligence Agency, Ford Motor Company, QUALCOMM, U.S. Postal Service, and the World Bank.

Brinkerhoff is an author of numerous books on evaluation and training, and has been a keynote speaker and presenter at hundreds of conferences and institutes worldwide. Many leading corporations and agencies have adopted his methods and tools for training effectiveness and evaluation.

He earned a doctorate at the University of Virginia in program evaluation and is recently retired as Professor of Counseling Psychology at Western Michigan University, where he coordinated graduate programs in human resource development. He is currently a principal consultant and alliance partner with Advantage Performance Group, a firm that provides business-linked training products and services and also offers training and certification in the High Impact Learning Success Case Method processes globally.

Brinkerhoff's work experience includes a five-year stint as an officer 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 has four children, thankfully mostly chronologically grown, and lives with his wife and several unruly dogs in Richland, Michigan. He can be reached at [e-mail].

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Believable, credible and useful!, February 18, 2003

By 

Barbara Smith (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Success Case Method: Find Out Quickly What's Working and What's Not (Paperback)

Finally! A simple, fast and credible evaluation tool that can be used to tell what is working in a new initiative, what is not working, and how the initiative could be more successful. This description sums up the evaluation technique described in The Success Case Method by Robert O. Brinkherhoff, a professor at Western Michigan University and an internationally recognized expert in evaluation and training effectiveness. If you are a manager trying to make things work better in your organization, this book will show you how to get compelling evidence that decision makers can actually use.

The Success Case Method is a simple book. Step by step, it takes you through the Success Case methodology, starting with planning the success case and creating an Impact Model. This model defines what success should look like. In completing the Impact Model, successful behaviors and results are listed that will happen if the initiative is working well. In leading up to successful application, the model includes the critical actions participants need to demonstrate to make success happen. It highlights the "line of sight," the linkage of an organizational initiative, to key business goals. The process is brief and concise, not strategic and comprehensive. It communicates the "business case" for the initiative -- how the capability produced in a new initiative can be used in actual performance to help achieve business goals.

The remaining chapters describe the process and tools used to search and identify the most likely success cases -- the stories that you need to understand and tell -- to figure out how well a new initiative is working. From the survey results, guidelines are then offered on interviewing respondents to determine what is really happening on the job as a result of application of the learned skills, what results are being achieved, the value of those results, and what could be done to get more people to use the skills.

Once the interviews have been completed, the author provides guidance in the creation and communication of Success Case study reports. Readers will learn how to create reports that are compelling and useful. Reports will drive not just an understanding of results, but help more people take action on those results. A Success Case study report also suggests changes that can be made to the initiative, the delivery of the initiative, or even the audience for whom the initiative is intended to strengthen the application of skills.

The methodology provides the means to combine storytelling with rigorous evaluation methods and principles to combine the credibility of scientific findings with the emotional impact of stories. The stories cite solid evidence and are backed by corroboration and documentation. The stories are verifiable accounts of the actions and results real people have experienced when applying learned skills in the workplace.

Overall, The Success Case Method is a must read for anyone involved in evaluating the impact of learning initiatives or anyone trying to get things to work better in their organization. The book presents simple tools, helpful illustrations, examples and checklists to use the Success Case Method constructively and easily. The end result of using this methodology is credible evidence that is believable, compelling and useful.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Similar to the case methods used by Harvard MBAs., November 28, 2007

By 

Alex P. "Alex P." (Kohler, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Success Case Method: Find Out Quickly What's Working and What's Not (Paperback)

Harvard's MBA program is renowned for successfully defining and (usually) solving business problems through its case method.

In this book, the author discusses an approach that's similar to the case method employed by the Harvard program.

Judging the book on its own merits, the first thing I noticed was how lucid the explanation of the method was. One could tell that the content was edited scrupulously. There was no extraneous fluff or irrelevant material.

The second thing I noticed was how persuasive the author was in promoting this particular method. He presented both reasons and anecdotes to support each step.

The author succeed in demonstrating that the Success Case Method can be an effective tool before, during, and after undertaking any Business Process Improvement project. In truth, this method belongs in the toolbox of anybody tasked with any kind of Change Management initiative.

I'll close by paraphrasing the author.

What does this method do for you? It provides answers, that's what it does. In particular, the method helps you answer four key questions about any change initiative.

1. What is really happening?

2. What are the results?

3. Are the results of value to us, in other words, are these the results we want?

4. Can the situation be improved, and, if so, how?

These questions can be asked of an existing situation to diagnose whether that situation needs to be changed. These same questions should also be asked after the changes have been made. In the former, the answers will provide you with clues to decide whether the situation needs to be changed. In the latter, the answers will measure the effectiveness of the changes you made.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Common sense, how to for gaterhing information and data, March 13, 2006

By 

S. Frawley "vision quest" (Columbus,Oh) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Success Case Method: Find Out Quickly What's Working and What's Not (Paperback)

Dr. Brinkerhoff makes evaluating training tangible and easy to implement. I am a visual learner and the stories he tells about his experiences were very helpful to me. I also like the fact he found out what did not work in training classes. Many times he found out that the follow up or coaching was not done by the manager. This was a great reminder that implementation and how the coaches implement needs to be part of the training program. Coaches/managers need to be held accountable too.

As a result I have identified employees who I will interview to capture their successes.