Another Training of Facilitators in Results-focused Project Design and Management has been conducted at the Pilgrimage Village Hotel in Hue, Vietnam. The event ran from 12-20 May and was attended by a good mix of international participants from different backgrounds. The group, composed of individuals from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Laos, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Singapore, [...]]]>

Another Training of Facilitators in Results-focused Project Design and Management has been conducted at the Pilgrimage Village Hotel in Hue, Vietnam. The event ran from 12-20 May and was attended by a good mix of international participants from different backgrounds. The group, composed of individuals from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Laos, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Singapore, and a host of project managers from the Vietnam government, has finally completed the nine-day training workshop which included sessions on the project design tools and facilitation inputs.

By David Stevensi

Your face may not be your fortune, but your facial expression is as much a part of communication with others as is speaking. We all know and easily recognize the common expressions like fear, interest, sadness, shame, disgust, surprise, happiness, and anger. In fact, these [...]]]> Careful: We Can All Read Facial Expressions

By David Stevensi

Your face may not be your fortune, but your facial expression is as much a part of communication with others as is speaking. We all know and easily recognize the common expressions like fear, interest, sadness, shame, disgust, surprise, happiness, and anger. In fact, these facial expressions are universal. As evidenced in Evolutionary Psychology by David Buss, if you show photos or even drawings of people exhibiting these emotions to anyone in the world, no matter how remote, they will attribute the correct interpretation to every look without fail. Some cultures may interpret the intensity of the emotion differently. Asian people, in general, rate a less intense facial expression than would an American. In these cultures, displaying emotion too strongly is considered impolite and so there is a tendency to play down in the mind what may actually be present. One doesn’t see what one doesn’t want to see, so to speak, but facial expressions can be far more subtle than this.

For instance, almost everyone has met someone who is seemingly friendly and happy, but afterwards says, “I don’t think he liked me” or “He didn’t seem so happy underneath.” That is because, although many expressions are voluntary, many more are beyond our control. They flit across a face, sometimes lasting only a microsecond, and even though we may not consciously perceive them in others, our sub-conscious is nevertheless taking in the information displayed. Reading facial expressions is something that goes back to the dawn of man. Those who were good at it tended to be able to tell friend from foe a little better and thus lived a little longer. Those who did not read facial expressions as well were disadvantaged and tended to have shorter lives.

The skill is still variable, however people have an innate ability that enables them to read the main emotion signifiers; it is the micro-expression that slips by many of us. If we accept that such facial expressions are universal, there must be a set of rules governing their manifestation.So thought anthropologist Paul Ekman in the late 1960s. He had shown that all cultures read facial expressions in much the same way and wanted to know what the mechanisms were that caused the expressions. Ekman, a professor at the University of California in San Francisco, put together a substantial videotape library of people’s face expressions and studied them, sometimes in slow motion, until he could pick up a flicker of emotion that might last no more than a small fraction of a second. He and a collaborator then decided that they needed to list all possible variations of expressions. To do this they had to study the underlying muscles and look at what controlled them in the brain. This was no easy task.

The muscles in the face can adjust themselves into 10,000 different configurations. An eyebrow lifted just a fraction, the eyes opened more than usual, or the lips turned down a smidgen, can produce an expression entirely different from that where the muscles pull the individual components into only a marginally different configuration. By working through every combination, he isolated 3,000 expressions that carried meaning. These were identified as the facial indicators for the entire gamut of human emotions. Ekman compiled the mechanics of all these combinations and the rules for reading and interpreting them into what he called, the Facial Action Coding System or FACS. So precise are the mechanics and rules that digital animation movie studios such as Pixar and Dreamworks used them to help properly animate the faces in Toy Soldier and Shrek.

It takes some study to be proficient at recognizing so many combinations of facial expression and their meaning. It takes even longer to be able to create those expressions at will on your own face. In an interview with the New Yorker magazine Ekman demonstrated his skills. He told how he was watching Bill Clinton on TV during the 1992 Democratic primaries and said, “I was watching his facial expressions and said to my wife, ‘This is Peck’s Bad Boy.’ This is a guy who wants to be caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and have us love him for it anyway. There was this expression that’s one of his favorites. It’s that hand-in-the-cookie-jar, love-me-Mommy-because-I’m-a-rascal look.” Ekman then began to assemble the look on his own face. He started with a classic smile, but tugged down the corners of the lips. He raised the chin, slightly pressed his lips together, and rolled his eyes. It was amazing. It was as if Bill Clinton had suddenly appeared in the room.

The recognition of facial expressions, particularly micro-expressions that come and go so swiftly is a skill much sought after in law-enforcement organizations. Ekman and ex-ATF agent J.J. Newbury put together a program to train officers of police forces around the world in interviewing techniques and lie detection. They also assist the CIA, FBI and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in counter-terrorism training.

A training tool they use is a tape of an interview with the famous “third man” in a soviet spy scandal in Britain during the Cold War. On the tape, Kim Philby, a high-ranking figure in British Intelligence appears to convincingly deny any wrongdoing; however, when played in slow motion, it is a different story. When asked if he has committed treason, a smirk of pure smugness, too brief to see normally, flits across his face. Ekman calls it “duping delight,” the thrill of fooling other people.

Police Sergeant Bob Harms is another expert face reader. He has always been able to read peoples’ facial expressions and body language, and one rainy night in West Hollywood, it saved his and his partner’s lives. They spotted a man all bundled up in a large coat and called him over to the squad car to check him out. They asked him what he was doing and he told them he was just out for a walk but had “something to show them.” While he was reaching beneath his coat, Harms shot him. Harms’ partner couldn’t believe it, but when they checked the body, they found a makeshift flamethrower with which the man was going to incinerate them. The follow-up investigation also discovered that the man was unstable and had just attempted suicide.

These are the geniuses of facial expression recognition, but everyone does it to some degree. Paul Ekman says it is not that hard to do it better. Close observation and being aware of what you are looking for can quickly improve your ability to judge what the other person is really thinking. Always remember: Your thoughts are written on your face for all to read.

Logframe for Windows 1.0 was developed by the Maizemoor International, whose founder has established [...]]]> In this article, we like to present three Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation Software that you can use in facilitating or supporting PPMS/DMF initiatives in your respective work areas. These are: (a) LogFrame for Windows 1.0, (b) AidProject M+E and (c) (PACPLAN) Solution.

Logframe for Windows 1.0 was developed by the Maizemoor International, whose founder has established some of the most successful and sustainable results based management (RBM) systems in international technical cooperation. Specifically, the company designed and installed the RBM systems for the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ) and the British Department for International Development (DfID). It is a simple and flexible way to put the Design and Monitoring Framework (DMF) Approach in the heart of your project design, monitoring and evaluation.

Recently, the LogFrame for Windows 1.0 has been streamlined to focus on just the DMF method, itself. It is designed to help you and your team state, monitor and learn from their commitments to a course of causal action. It guides you to establish the results chain that drives the relationship between your deliverables and the outcomes of your projects or programmes. It consists of the following modules: DMF (sometimes referred to as Logframe), Resource editing, Project information, Export, and Printing. You can get the trial version here.

The AidProject M+E is a comprehensive and straightforward M&E software for Donor-funded aid projects. It empowers projects and programmes to employ good practices and satisfy your respective donor requirements. Basically, it helps the Project teams in: (a) Customizing the project via its Define Lookup Trees and Branches functions, customising include the DMF, Methods, Purposes, Gatherers (entities that will gather M&E data), Monitors, etc. The DMF/LogFrame will consist of the Impact, Outcome, Output, Activity – up to 10 levels) to define Indicators; (b) Define Performance Indicators together with their Locations and Periods and attaches additional criteria (your customised Trees & Branches) for reporting and analysis; (c) Maintain period targets and actual performance data (dates, text, money, yield, etc.); and (d) Distribute performance reports to Monitors (Donors, Government, Project Management, Stakeholders, etc.) and export spreadsheets to assist Gatherers.

One of the interesting features of the program is the Locations (Country, Constituency, District, Town, Village) for sub-dividing Indicators. It can report the progress of each indicators for every layer of the project. It has Purposes (relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability) info that are used to define Indicators. The M+E Methods are pre-configured with 34 methods including Random Sampling, Stakeholder Analysis, etc. The Units of Measure (dates, text, money, tons, etc.) can have user-defined formats. It has a good organization of contacts to record the contact information of members of Gatherers and Monitor Groups. Finally, it has extensive text records consisting of Text Impact (High, Med, Low), Status (Open, Closed, Pending, Suspended), & Type (Achievement, Action, Risk, Issue, Lesson, etc.). A license to use AidProject M+E is absolutely free. You can download the program from here.

Package Planning (PACPLAN)

Solution is an e-governance tool for project and public sector management to improve its policy/program/project measurement that specifically targets gathering, collating, analyzing and disseminating policy/program/project information. It is easy to use software tools and processes combined with various graphics technology, internet technology and modeling tools such as economic analysis without stretching the organization capacity limitation. It enables project organization to implement, in the continuously changing environment, within the short time frame. It enhances management capacity through transparency, accountability, flexibility, adaptability, participation, predictability, continuity and supports the logical framework approach and facilitate stakeholders to appreciate a better M&E process where technology can later be enhanced.

Together with the software, PACPLAN offers a five-day workshop to help build your skill and learn from an experienced M&E system implementing practitioner. You will also be using the pre-developed M&E Software tools to fast track your learning and overcome obstacles in M&E system implementation, as well as ensure sustainability for continuing and improvement of M&E framework. You will become proficient at planning, design and development of M&E System as well as software tools, understanding stake holders and obtaining their consensus and handling difficult situations.

Posted by Ed Canela, guest Blogger