Twelve Steps to Impact Heaven - a real process for the real world

As readers of my previous posts will know, I believe that charities, social enterprises, community groups and voluntary organisations need to focus on impact leadership, not just impact measurement.  This means organisations totally focused on achieving the most impact they can and it means changes at every level of an organisation, especially planning, improvement, and communication.

I’m used to getting challenged on this when I run NCVO’s Impact Leadership training course.  But on the previous course, one of the participants didn’t say “You’re wrong!” Her challenge was perhaps tougher: she said “You’re right! So, how do I actually do it? How do I get my charity from where it is now to impact heaven?”

I love the phrase ‘impact heaven’; and what a great question, well deserving of an answer. Having helped charities on this journey many times, here’s a 12 step process that could help. Use and adapt these 12 steps to design your own process; don’t follow it slavishly (as if you would!)

Step 1. Scope and plan

‘The impact thing’ isn’t a one-off process that you can do in 6-18 months and then say ‘we’re done with that, it’s sorted’.  But you do need to start somewhere, with a mini-project that starts and ends, that builds confidence and makes and sustains real changes in how your organisation works. So clarify why you want to get better at impact, at this moment in time.  There are many many benefits of being strong on impact – which benefits do you most want to get, right now? In which impact elements are you weakest? And what can do you want to focus on achieving in this next ‘impact leadership’ improvement project?

Be specific: detail the key driver or drivers (don’t give yourself more than three drivers) and check that key people agree. These drivers will help you test the success of this particular impact improvement project. Clarify the scope, especially what you won’t cover at this stage, and whether this is something for part of the organisation initially or for the whole caboodle. Then create a change plan, perhaps by putting the steps below into a timetable and naming who will own each stage, and who else they will involve.

Step 2. Approve and resource it

Get the plan approved by your SMT/board, including resourcing it with a named project manager. If they don’t buy in, or persist in thinking this is about measurement or isn’t that important, you may have to do some persuading and influencing.

Step 3. Communicate what’s happening

Communicate the change and the plan to staff and volunteers, including why you’re doing it (back to your drivers).  Give them face to face opportunities to express concerns and take these seriously, adapting your plan as necessary.  Inspire them about the benefits of this to them and their work; not least the ability to achieve more for your cause or mission, the ability to learn more about their successes, and the ability to increase the likelihood of funding their work.

Step 4. What are you for?

Clarify what your work itself is trying to achieve (ie, not this impact leadership improvement project, but rather the day-to-day projects and services you deliver to beneficiaries). You may think this is obvious, that everyone knows what your organisation is there to achieve, but few of the organisations I work with are as clear as they need to be. Many of us are really quite vague about the pruposes of our organisation – “to help young people”; perhaps to keep different opinions from turning into conflict.  You need ‘impact plans’ that are:

1. specific – they aren’t fudged, they are at a good level of detail
2. agreed – they need to be shared by people across the organisation
3. relevant – they need to relate to the real and emerging needs of your beneficiaries or cause
4. not outputs in disguise – they should not list what you’ll do (“to help”, “to provide”, “to enable”, “to deliver”), but explain what you’ll achieve (“our beneficiaries will …”)

Aim for one overarching impact for your organisation, two to four middle level impacts, and four to sixteen lower level impacts. If your organisation is large or complex, you may need a fourth level or even a fifth and sixth. Show how impacts link to outputs (workstreams), and ensure they also complement your budgets.

Step 5. Who's the audience?

You might think that you needn’t worry about communicating until you’ve collected and analysed evidence.  This would be a mistake, lending itself to the risks of ‘just-in-case’ data collection. Far better to know what you’d like to communicate to whom, then get the evidence they’ll need and want.

Brainstorm who you want to communicate your impact to.  Prioritise the top 3 or 4 audiences. In particular, have a balance of internal (frontline staff, managers, SMT, trustees, volunteers) and external (funders, partners, beneficiaries) audiences.

Consider what you want those audiences to "do differently" as a result of receiving evidence about your impact.  For example, you may want frontline staff to innovate and share good practice.  You may want trustees to be able to have better debates about the relative merits of different workstreams. And you may want prospective funders to invite you to bid.

Clarify (if you can) the communications preferences of these audiences, including what formats of information and types of evidence (numbers, stories, pictures?) they like, if any. Create a mock up of what your ideal communication would contain and would look and feel like. This might include verbal communications as well as written ones.

Step 6. Search for the answers within

Map existing knowledge, evidence and data – about what works and what doesn't – that is held within the organisation, including electronically, on paper and in people's heads. In particular, pay close attention when a frontline worker tells you ‘they just know’. They probably do, and they are probably onto something.  If you can help them articulate how they just know, you’ll be making their tacit knowledge explicit.

Also take some to research evidence available outside the organisation – or delegate someone to do this.  What is know, nationally and internationally about how to create as much impact as possible for your beneficiaries/cause?

Step 7. Impact monitoring framework

Using what you came up with in steps 4, 5 and 6, come up with indicators for those impacts and outputs that you decide you do need to evidence. You may not need to evidence everything – just the things you need to communicate to audiences.

Indicators are ‘things that tell you’ the output or impact is likely to have happened. There are places you can go to borrow indicators. If your field or sub-sector could benefit from having an agreed set of indicators, consider working with other organisations to develop these.
Decide who within your organisation will create what evidence, from whom, when, and how.  Don’t forget to sample. You don’t necessarily need to collect evidence for every user for every service every month.

Plan who will collate the evidence and where the evidence will sit.  Decide who will conduct the analysis, and how the analysis will be done.  Based on the 'mock ups' from step 5, decide what 'reports' or communications' will be created, by who, and how. Roughly assess the costs of generating, analysing and reporting the evidence and if costs are too high, revise the plans.

Step 8. Start gathering evidencing

Use the line management structure and other corporate communications methods to tell staff and volunteers about their roles in data generation, analysis and reporting. Listen to their ideas and concerns and revise the plans as necessary.  Put in place the support, training and systems they need. Test any new data instruments (eg, focus groups, surveys) with a few people, and revise as necessary.
Ensure people are getting up-and-running with evidence generation and analysis.

Step 9. Immediate impact improvements

Run 'innovation and improvement' workshops for relevant staff.  Improve your collective understanding of what is working well and why by using the impact evidence you’ve generated and other ideas and knowledge people bring into the workshop. Where necessary identify improvements to systems, products, services, etc. and ensure clear action plans for implementing and reviewing these improvements – who will do what by when?

Step 10. Talk the talk

Produce videos, web content, pamphlets, case studies and impact reports, as appropriate based on your impact communications plan from step 5.  Depending on the focus of this impact improvement project, your communications may include summaries of progress against planned impact for your trustee board, answering the ‘how are we doing?’ question. Try to get these into a digestible and meaningful format, such as a visual dashboard.

Run workshops for relevant staff in communicating your organisation's impact. Be clear that you expect them to verbally summarise your organisation’s achievements, when it is appropriate to do so, with external audiences. Give them regular updates about the organisation's achievements (and failures that have led to improvements) and outline which of these you would like them to communicate externally.

Step 11. Review the planned impacts

Review the planned impacts from Step 4 regularly (every 6, 12, 18 or 36 months) depending on the speed of change amongst your beneficiaries' needs and your external environment. This means checking whether the planned destination is still in fact the right destination, or needs to change – quite different to checking how you’re progressing on progress towards the destination. This is about strategic renewal.

Step 12. Go back to ‘Go’!

Give the impact improvement project time to bed in.  It may have been grand and amazing, but the chances are it won’t have solved all the issues and your organisation won’t yet be super-duper on impact leadership across the board.  If it was limited in scope but successful, it should help to build confidence and momentum.

Identify further improvements needed on impact leadership at your organisation, and then start again at step one with anew mini-impact leadership improvement project.

Impact heaven isn’t a destination, it’s a constant journey of achieving more to make the world a better place.