about ownership

There are many definitions of “ownership.” We want to make sure we share an understanding of what it means to “own” an evaluation because it may differ from how you normally use that word. Our definition is below. Soon, we'll discuss how you understand ownership so we stay aligned.

Our Definition of Ownership

For evaluations, Eval Design Studio defines ownership as a combination of 1) the real option to lead the evaluation, and 2) the real ability to claim the evaluation’s outputs.

The Option to Lead

Leading the evaluation does not mean doing everything by yourself. It means choosing what you:

  • Do independently (with as much support as you want)
  • Do collaboratively (with Eval Design Studio and/or the organization)
  • Delegate (when it is wise, necessary, or required by ethics or law)

Each of these statements demonstrate leadership:

  • “We want space to decide on our own and then present our decision once we’re done.”
  • “We want you to facilitate a process where we make a decision.”
  • “We want to delegate this task or establish safeguards because it’s wise, or because we need to comply with ethics or local laws.”

Claiming Evaluation Outputs

You should also have the real ability to claim what the evaluation produces, such as:

  • New knowledge
  • Recommendations and action items
  • Public communications
  • The ability to hold those in power accountable (e.g., organizations or local leaders).

Ownership in Practice

Broadly, ownership shows up in three arenas: deliberation, closing decisions, and completing tasks.


A) Deliberating Options

Deliberation is the process of thinking through and discussing your options. You can choose who (if anyone) to consult while deliberating (e.g., EDS, the organization, EDS's community touchpoints (if available), trusted community leaders, spiritual practices, and more).


To facilitate your deliberation, you can use your own tools if you have them, EDS’s tools without us present, or have EDS facilitate deliberation using our tools. In most cases, it will make sense if EDS facilitates. Please note, if EDS facilitates, we do not make decisions and we do not offer our opinions unless explicitly asked or ethics/the law requires.


Readiness Reviews

Before some decisions are finalized, EDS may need to conduct a brief Readiness Review to ensure the decision is:

  1. Safe and ethical (Do No Harm)
  2. Feasible within known constraints (e.g., budget, timeline, procurement rules, evaluation questions)
  3. Consistent with data governance requirements (e.g., privacy, access, sharing)


If a decision does not meet these safeguards, we will flag the issue, explain the challenge, and provide revision options for you to deliberate.


B) Closing Decisions

After decisions are deliberated and clear a Readiness Review (if one is necessary), they need to be closed (finalized). In this regard, you will determine two things:


1) the process for closing decisions (e.g., a vote) and

2) who participate in this process (e.g., whether EDS or the organization also cast votes)


The Council may use any method of closing decisions that is safe and ethical. Some options that you may already find culturally appropriate and familiar include:


Voting

  • Definition: each member expresses their support for a given option. The option with enough support wins.


  • Considerations: What will be your threshold for "enough" support? You might choose a simple majority (50% +1 of voters in favor), super majority (75% of voters in favor), plurality (the option with the most votes wins, regardless of the percent of overall votes cast), or something else. You'll also need to decide a quorum (the minimum number of people who must be present in order for a vote to take place.


Consent

  • Definition: a decision can go forward as long as no one in the group has any reasoned objections. The goal is not for everyone to love the decision but to at least be "okay" with it.


  • Considerations: What will be considered a reasoned objection? Typically, this includes matters of safety, or violations of ethics or the law.


Consensus

  • Definition: everyone in the group emphatically supports the decision.


  • Considerations: What will you do if everyone does not emphatically support a decision by the deadline? Will you fall back on another method (e.g., voting) or something else, such as escalate/defer to a trusted decision maker?

C) Completing Evaluation Tasks

Most decisions will create tasks. You can choose whether these tasks are done:


  • Independently by the Council (with support as desired)
  • Collaboratively (between the Council and EDS and/or the organization)
  • Delegated (to EDS, the organization, or a specialist, such as an artist)


Technically, you can choose to be consulted on a task; however, we generally discourage this because it can reproduce traditional, non-community-owned approaches.


If you decide to be consulted, we will document how your feedback shaped the final output and any constraints that prevented incorporating your feedback.

Next Steps

Soon, we'll do the following:

  1. Capture how you understand ownership in the context of this evaluation.
  2. Codify your definition of ownership and how you want to make decisions in an Ownership Charter.


Throughout the evaluation, we will check in to see if your definition of ownership has evolved, whether and to what extent you are experiencing ownership, and what EDS can do to improve your experience.

© Eval Design Studio 2026