Tools & articles

Measuring what matters

Participatory indexes and frameworks, most built on the Ten Seed Technique, for understanding communities and tracking the change that matters to them. Five can be worked through in your browser; the rest are written up below.

Try them yourself

Five you can work through in your browser

Each one puts ten seeds in your hand. Place them on the plate to show how true something is, one question at a time — the same method used with communities in the field, scaled down to one person or group. Nothing is uploaded or stored, and you can export your result as a PDF.

Measurement

Happiness Index

The five aspects of happiness — positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment. Developed with Dr. VanValin.

5 steps · exports a PDF

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Measurement

Personal Empowerment Index

The four areas of control that contribute to personal empowerment: health, income, expenditure, and micro-political environment.

4 steps · exports a PDF

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Faith

Values Change Index

The nine fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). Run it for yourself, or for your congregation.

9 steps · exports a PDF

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Faith

Blessedness Index

The eight marks of the blessed life, from the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:2–10).

8 steps · exports a PDF

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Reconciliation

Reconciled

The eight elements of reconciliation, from the forthcoming book Reconciled. Think of one relationship and work through it.

8 steps · exports a PDF

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Reading

The thinking behind the tools

Field notes and frameworks from four decades of participatory practice.

Measurement

SSE Index

Tracks how a community's own capacities grow against its vulnerabilities, year by year, using the Holistic Worldview Analysis.

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Frameworks

Holistic Worldview Analysis

Understanding a community's worldview, and why it makes a world of difference to development practice.

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Faith

Marriage Foundations

A self-assessment for couples to assess and strengthen the foundations of their marriage.

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Frameworks

A3U Water Security

A framework for safe drinking water in poor communities: Availability, Access, Asset creation, Utilization.

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Frameworks

W3P7 Strategy

Integrating the empirical and spiritual dimensions of development. Presented at Lausanne, Cape Town 2010.

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News

Recognition

Named in the Atlanta Business Chronicle's Top 100 leaders guiding the future of Atlanta's health-care industry.

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