Category Archives: Research Impact

Research as if people were human

Posted on December 20, 2013 by admin

I’m delighted to be a guest blogger for IRISS this week.  This post talks about how stories energise and restore people’s connections with each other and what they care about, so motivating people to work together.  Action research – a truly humane approach to … Continue reading →

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, How can evaluation be useful?, Living systems research, Participatory research methods, Partnership working, Research Impact, Stories, What is action research? | Comments Off on Research as if people were human

Appreciative dialogue – co-production in action

Posted on November 14, 2013 by admin

Here’s a new article on appreciative dialogue by Belinda Dewar and Cathy Sharp. We discuss the role of appreciative dialogue in facilitation of practice development and action research. There’s not much guidance about the ‘how’ of facilitation – here we highlight one … Continue reading →

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, Living systems research, Participatory research methods, Partnership working, Research Impact, Stories, What is action research? | Comments Off on Appreciative dialogue – co-production in action

Better by Design

Posted on July 29, 2013 by admin

Research for Real has been selected, in partnership with Animate, to act as a Learning Partner to the Young Foundation and Taylor Haig in the 2 year BIG funded project Better by Design, which will be supporting 15 voluntary organisations in … Continue reading →

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, How can evaluation be useful?, Partnership working, Research Impact, Uncategorized, What is action research? | Comments Off on Better by Design

Stories – how to use them to bring work to life

Posted on July 29, 2013 by admin

Changing places with stories is a new resource developed by Space Unlimited with Research for Real to help groups of people to work with stories to support learning and inspire action to improve our places. Experience shows that story-telling can … Continue reading →

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, How can evaluation be useful?, Living systems research, Participatory research methods, Partnership working, Research Impact, Stories | Comments Off on Stories – how to use them to bring work to life

Everyone’s talking about impact…..

Posted on May 30, 2013 by admin

Nice blog by Heather Sim of Space Unlimited…measurement of change as an art as much as a science.

Posted in How can evaluation be useful?, Research Impact | Comments Off on Everyone’s talking about impact…..

Improvisation and the art of change

Posted on January 23, 2013 by admin

At a Total Place event today we were reminded “the revolution will be improvised”. A catchy meme for sure which reminded me of an article I’ve read some time ago by Frank J Barrett.   He makes the point that there are lots … Continue reading →

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, How can evaluation be useful?, Living systems research, Participatory research methods, Partnership working, Research Impact, What is action research? | Comments Off on Improvisation and the art of change

Really useful evidence?

Posted on October 13, 2012 by admin

Recently I was at the same event as Jackie Killeen, Director of the Big Lottery in Scotland.   It was great to hear her say this: “At BIG we have some positive experience of being able to find and utilise evidence … Continue reading →

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, How can evaluation be useful?, Participatory research methods, Partnership working, Research Impact, What is action research? | Comments Off on Really useful evidence?

Don’t do it unless you have to?

Posted on September 27, 2012 by admin

We know that multi-agency partnership working is difficult. “Collaboration is by nature inefficient.  It is only sensible to collaborate if real collaborative advantage can be envisaged.  The strongest piece of advice, therefore, is ‘don’t do it unless you have to’”.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, How can evaluation be useful?, Participatory research methods, Partnership working, Research Impact, What is action research? | Comments Off on Don’t do it unless you have to?

How to create an appetite for evidence……

Posted on September 6, 2012 by admin

I’m just back from a very interesting gathering of folk who find evidence use fascinating and want to see more of it.    We at least seemed to agree that we want to create more of an appetite for evidence and want … Continue reading →

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, How can evaluation be useful?, Participatory research methods, Partnership working, Research Impact, What is action research? | Comments Off on How to create an appetite for evidence……

How action research can help to deliver better services

Posted on August 13, 2012 by admin

See this short creative storyboard – with thanks to IRISS for their support How action research can help to deliver better services from iriss on Vimeo.

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, How can evaluation be useful?, Participatory research methods, Partnership working, Research Impact, What is action research? | Comments Off on How action research can help to deliver better services