Conservation Coaches Network
Coach Training
Results Chains
Testing the logic of your strategies
What Is The
Question?
Results
Chains
IF …. THEN (!)
What Is The
Question?
Results
Chains
• What is the logic of your intervention(s)?
What is a Results Chain?
Results
Chains
A tool for documenting a team’s
“theory of change,” describing how a
strategy will lead to conservation
success
Key Points to
Introduce this Step
• Results Oriented
• “If-then” Logic Must Stand Up
• Make Assumptions and Incentives Explicit
• Alternatives are OK
• Peer Review is Critical
Results
Chains
One Way to Develop
a Results Chain
1.
2.
3.
4.
Results
Chains
Construct an initial results chain
Complete the links in the results chain
Verify that your results chain meets criteria of a
good results chain
Add activities to show how your specific actions
(activities) will contribute to achieving your
results
Critical Questions
to Ask the Team
Results
Chains
• Are there leaps in logic?
• Are there hidden assumptions?
• Are other strategies needed to support the focal
strategy?
• Is the right expertise present in the room?
Common Issues &
Recommendations
Results
Chains
Left to Right or Right to Left?
•Right to Left may be better for a new strategy – to ensure that
the objectives are met
•Left to Right may better for a familiar strategy where the focus
is on how it will get done
•Either way can work – let the group decide how it would like to
proceed
Common Issues &
Recommendations
Results
Chains
The chain does not reach the desired result
If a results chain has helped the team determine that a given
strategy will probably not achieve the desired results, you have
saved the team considerable time, effort, and resources – a
planning success!
Common Issues &
Recommendations
Results
Chains
Complicated, interdependent results chains
• Develop the full results chain in sections, with clear
intermediate results and showing where other parts of the
strategies support the achievement of results
• Very complex results chains may be useful for the team to
lay out how the strategy should work. For communication
purposes, consider a much simpler chain that contains only
the key results
Common Issues &
Recommendations
Results
Chains
•Create a high-level meta-chain that shows how all of the pieces of a complex
strategy fit together
In addition to this…
Have this available…
Helpful Hints
Results
Chains
• Results chains are not implementation diagrams, but the
inclusion of clearly distinguished activities and results will
make the chain less theoretical and more practical. This will
improve the flow of the diagram and can be turned into a
workplan.
• When you get stuck, ask “what would you do next?” and “if
you implement that activity well, what will be the result?”
• Once you have a solid draft of your chain, read through it in
an “if…then” manner to check your logic. This will help you
identify gaps and leaps of faith.
Helpful Hints
Results
Chains
Usually European coaches like to start a chain with the relevant
pieces of the conceptual model,
In other cases or if the group gets stuck, you can use the
Retrofitting strategy (start from a Strategy already in place or
preferred by some reason and create the RC from it).
However you tackle it, refer back to the conceptual model to
ensure that the relevant factors are being addressed.
Helpful Hints
Results
Chains
• After activities and results are done
 Can add the most important objectives to the results
 Can add staff and other expenses, due dates to the
activities
• When the chain is complete, this is another opportunity to
look for new stakeholders and to discuss their motivations
What Is The
Question?
Results
Chains
IF …. THEN (!)