The Evaluation‐Systems Nexus: Opportunities for Co‐Creating New Social Possibilities Through Policy Enactment

ABSTRACT Evaluation (and evaluators) evolve and adapt their practices in response to societal changes. In recent years, substantial budget cuts and an increased recognition of post‐truth tactics undermining the credibility of scientific evidence have brought to the fore the limitations of a traditional rational‐objectivist program evaluation. Within the evaluation field, conversations are shifting toward evaluating complexity and systems change. Using key concepts within systems thinking—understanding interrelationships , acknowledging perspectives , and reflecting on boundaries —as an organizing framework, I examine how systems thinking and systems approaches can create opportunities for organizational actors to approach policy enactment anew by explicitly embracing a deeply reflective, co‐constructed, and adaptive, iterative learning process. I illustrate how adopting this mindset and approach to evaluation can open opportunities for organizational actors to co‐create new social possibilities through their policy development and enactment processes.