Defining your Impact Strategy
Part 4 — Creating your 12-month plan
Behind the Story
Last year, the Uncharted team and I worked together for six months to revamp the organization’s impact measurement strategy. You can learn more about this project in the first, second, and third posts of the series.
What we did
Planning was built into each step in our impact strategy project. During our last Theory of Change session, we asked everyone to identify their action items over the next 12-months. As we created our data inventory, we made a visual calendar of data collection and reporting activities through 2019. After we created our new survey tools, we updated this calendar.
I created two other tools in January 2019 to help us stay organized. First, we created a data collection protocols document that outlines how to perform regular data collection activities. Second, I made a transition checklist that summarizes the next steps each staff member committed to.
At the end of our project, we had a final meeting that served as a celebration of completing this project, and as a handoff between me and the rest of the team. The team surprised me in the most appropriate way possible — by creating a theory of change for me! That meeting coincided with “dress like a goth on vacation day,” and Joe played the part beautifully:
Reflections
Perhaps it’s my inner-achiever talking, but I’m fond of checklists. They’re simple and clear. If I were to do this project over, I would have started drafting the transition checklist at the very beginning.
That said, even the best checklist fails if individuals don’t have time or capacity to take care of each task. Uncharted has had a busy season, so we’ve made less progress on these impact next-steps than we would like.
Tips for doing this yourself
I’ve shared this article from the Harvard Business Review more than any other. It states that that changes in organizations are typically under-communicated by a factor of 10. Be an exception to the rule and over-communicate changes to impact data collection, storage, and analysis.
Also, use your team’s protocols for communication to your advantage. Uncharted communicates heavily on Slack, so I used that platform to provide updates as the project moved along, and share the purpose for upcoming meetings. Whatever the format, make sure that impact measurement updates are communicated regularly across your team so everyone is reminded of them.
Third, consider what external communications you already have planned where you can include impact results. For example, Uncharted published learning reports that combine stories of impact with quantitative results that have been collected.
Finally, think forward to the next opportunities where your organization will all be engaging with impact measurement. Schedule out a meeting where you will revisit your Theory of Change in 6-months to a year, once you’ve collected some data and reflected on it.
PS — as always, if you’d like to learn more about the topics discussed in this post or would like additional resources, feel free to contact me directly.
