Cathexis was without plumbing for a few days when a mysterious blockage developed in the city pipes. City workers showed up and, like good evaluators, drilled down to understand where in the process flow (the theory of change, if you will) things were going wrong. This involved some heavy analytical equipment:
The outcome? The city workers couldn’t find the blockage. But whatever it was, it spontaneously dislodged itself and the pipes started magically working again.
Does this bear some lesson for the evaluation profession? We’re not sure. But we’re definitely happy to have running water again.