Roger Kaufman
ABSTRACT: Needs Assessments can be a powerful organizational and performance improvement tool for identifying what is working and what is not. Unfortunately, there is much confusion over what a needs assessment is, and what it should include. this pragmatic audit identifies the essential elements for a useful Needs Assessment, and provides the criteria to be used to identify what might be missing from the current process.
Needs Assessments: What are they
What usually “passes” for a Needs Assessment usually is not one. Because they confuse ends and means, they usually ask “what is ‘needed’ (sic) and thus the effort harvests solutions, interventions, resources, and methods; they are actually “wants assessments.” If one selects the means (even calling them “needs”), then we will have solutions in search of problems (Kaufman, 2006, Kaufman, Oakley-Browne, Watkins, & Leigh, 2003). Disappointment usually results, no matter how well-meaning or conventional the approach.