Case Studies
The Action-Based Learning process is perhaps most commonly seen in the use of case studies. However, this is fraught with hidden risks if case studies are not developed carefully and used in an appropriate way.
A case study is a packaging up of the story of a particular project, event or organisation in such a way that lessons can be drawn to help others engaged in similar activities.
All too often, though, they become exercises in public relations, focusing only on the successful aspects and minimising reference to any problems which were encountered. The difficulty is that organisations and individuals seldom want to own up to problems which they have faced, as explained on the Obstacles page. Yet to be useful to others, it is often the way that problems were dealt with which offers the most valuable lessons.
This links with a second challenge - how to design and write up a case study so that others can see if it is relevant to them. If there is enough detail for others to draw practical guidance from, it may be difficult to get an overview of what the case study offers - a case of not seeing the wood for the trees!
The third challenge also concerns accessibility - where and how to store case studies so that others can find them easily, when everyone is facing information overload. Looking for relevant case studies from elsewhere when you have tight deadlines for setting up a new project often comes low on the priority list. The psychological obstacles come in here as well - many of us revert to a "not invented here" attitude as a reason not to look elsewhere for lessons.
Even when we realise it makes sense to look at case studies from elsewhere to help design a new project or embark on changes to the organisation, there is a fourth major challenge lurking below the surface - how to assess which lessons are relevant and transferable to our own situation. Every project and every organisation is different in some way, despite similarities which may exist. It is vital to be alive to these distinctions when drawing lessons from case studies.
Despite all these challenges, well-designed case studies can be enormously valuable in helping organisations to develop and operate successfully, without having to go through all the pitfalls which others have faced.
Case studies are especially helpful in sharing experience in the field of sustainable development. Because this is such a tricky concept to explain, bedevilled by alternative interpretations, practical case studies can be the most effective way of showing what it means on the ground to real people. See more in the attached presentation given to senior representatives of public bodies in 2006.
IDEAction offers the use of case studies as one of its core techniques.
Drawing on his knowledge management work at Scottish Enterprise, Andrew Llanwarne was responsible for identifying and capturing case studies for the Scottish Executive's guidance on Best Value and Sustainable Development. As part of this initiative he gave a detailed seminar presentation to public bodies from throughout Scotland on the ways of gaining most benefit from the use of case studies.
This expertise was then used by the Scottish Executive in shaping its own approach to capturing cases studies in sustainable development.
More recently, IDEAction was part of a team for a project which designed and gathered case studies of different approaches to sustainable economic growth, now the top priority of the Scottish Government.
The use of narrative techniques to capture people's experiences can be particularly useful in developing case studies which people can relate to in a practical way. This is one of the important techniques used by IDEAction (see Storytelling page).
For further information on the approach and techniques used by IDEAction to get full benefit from the use of case studies, contact Andrew Llanwarne.
