Making Measures Count: Structured Indicator Selection To Improve Program Success

Indicators are essential, yet often overlooked and undervalued, elements of conservation planning. This is concerning given that selection and implementation of indicators is vital to monitoring, evaluation and learning and can require substantial investment of resources. While indicators are critical for successful program management, indicator selection is rarely approached as a discrete process, subsequently reducing transparency and increasing the likelihood of selection biases. There are many characteristics of a good indicator, such as how easily it is understood by key audiences or how easily it can be measured. As a result, choosing indicators, like choosing management actions, is inherently a value-based judgement because decision-makers must decide which indicator characteristics are most important among many options. We recommend using a structured selection process to deconstruct decision complexities, thereby increasing transparency, reducing selection biases and improving communication among participants involved in the selection process. We demonstrate the value of structured processes by using a PrOACT approach, which is an acronym for the key elements of decision making - Problem, Objectives, Alternatives, Consequences, and Tradeoffs. Operationalizing PrOACT elements within a structured framework involves (1) clarifying the decision problem, (2) specifying objectives for the decision, (3) developing imaginative alternatives, (4) understanding the consequences of your alternatives given the stated objectives, and (5) grappling with tradeoffs. We illustrate how this framework can be incorporated into indicator selection with examples from environmental programs and a case study that demonstrates how to operationalize a structured indicator selection process. Programs often achieve the first three elements - Problem, Objectives, and Alternatives - during indicator selection, but fail to fully address and document the Consequences and Tradeoffs of their decisions. By using a comprehensive PrOACT approach, programs, especially those with complex socio-ecological systems or risk-averse decision contexts, can systematically deconstruct the indicator selection process to more objectively and transparently assess these consequences and tradeoffs so the best possible selections can be made.