Scaling Evaluation: From Pockets of Excellence to Enterprise Capability

In this episode of The Kirkpatrick Podcast, Vanessa sits down with Ted Kniker — co-founder of IMPACT Paradigm Associates, former Chief of Evaluation at the U.S. Department of State, and contributing author to Raising America: Building a More Perfect Union — to tackle one of the most pressing questions in evaluation today: how do you actually scale it across an entire organization?   Ted brings hard-won perspective from 24 years in federal government and consulting across hundreds of organizations. The conversation gets real fast, covering why scaling evaluation is not the same as multiplying activity, why strong evaluation on one team almost never transfers to the enterprise, and what it actually takes to move from isolated pockets of excellence to true organizational capability.   Key takeaways: •       Scaling evaluation means creating alignment on shared outcomes — not adding more dashboards and reports. •       Program evaluation can succeed on talent; enterprise evaluation has to succeed through systems. •       The biggest red flag: when your organization is "information rich but decision poor." •       Leaders signal whether evaluation is a compliance exercise, a political weapon, or a genuine learning function — and that signal determines whether it scales. •       Standardize at the outcome/results level, not the measurement level; that's where the Kirkpatrick Model shines at enterprise scale.   Connect with Ted on LinkedIn. To learn how the Kirkpatrick Model can help your organization build a true culture of evaluation, visit kirkpatrickpartners.com.     Enterprise Performance Intelligence (EPI) Maturity Assessment  Think your organization is measuring impact? Most aren't. The EPI Maturity Assessment helps you quickly identify where you stand—and what's needed to better connect learning to performance and results. 👉 Take the assessment and get clarity on your next step. Building a Culture of Evaluation Order the book behind the Culture of Evaluation framework and updated Kirkpatrick Model. The book comes with a Companion Guide to help support you on the journey. 👉 Order the book now Kirkpatrick Learning and Performance Center of Excellence Certification builds capability. Accreditation builds systems. The Kirkpatrick Certified Organization accreditation recognizes organizations that have embedded the Kirkpatrick Four Levels® into how they actually operate — through governance, SOPs, feedback loops, and cross-functional accountability. If your evaluation capability would disappear when a key person leaves, this is the credential designed to fix that. Founding Organization status is now open — first year of annual maintenance waived for inaugural cohort members. 👉 Learn more and apply Not ready to apply yet because you need to build the systems? Grab the SOPs. We're building a library of Kirkpatrick-standard SOPs — governance frameworks, evaluation procedures for all four levels, planning templates, and implementation guides — so you can build your infrastructure before you apply. 👉 Learn more Kirkpatrick Collective  If you're ready to move beyond activity and start driving real performance, the Kirkpatrick Collective brings together leaders focused on applying evaluation in the real world. Get practical tools, shared insight, and the structure to make better, evidence-based decisions. 👉 Join the Collective and start building evaluation as a capability—not just an activity. Learn more about the Kirkpatrick Model Watch the Show on YouTube! Submit your Questions/Stories: Do you have a question you would like us to answer on the Kirkpatrick Podcast? Have a story about how the Kirkpatrick Podcast or other Kirkpatrick events/programs have positively impacted your career? We would love to hear from you! Follow this link to submit your questions and/or stories, and we may just share them on the next episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast. #KirkpatrickPodcast #LearningImpact #PerformanceImprovement #TrainingEvaluation #CultureOfEvaluation #KirkpatrickModel