#8 | Measuring impact, robustly
Plus: 6 ideas for impact metrics
Hello!
When it comes to measuring impact on 'softer' topics like leadership or culture, most people just do not hold very high expectations, and hence standards. But this edition urges you to do just the opposite.
Why, really, is it important to measure impact? Apart from the obvious, let us add 4 not-so-obvious reasons:
First - It really galvanizes the project team towards outcomes. The project team is usually a mix of internal members and external partners. Having impact goals and a clear impact measurement mandate energizes everyone to play on the same team like allies.
Second - It unlocks the Amplification Effect. When impact is captured in meaningful ways, there is a glorious opportunity to play it back to participants, sponsors, and higher-ups. Doing so is smart. Playing back impact amplifies impact even further!
Third - There's, potentially, the Scaling Effect. Developmental programs are run to create meaningful shifts and growth in your leaders. Rigorous impact measurement can indicate if this has been achieved, and help you take a call on scaling up the program.
Fourth - There's valuable organizational learning. When you measure, you discover what worked and what didn't, which opens up a possibility for scaled programs with higher impact in the future — even if the project team has all new faces!
How, then, does one go about measuring impact? That's a timeless question that we have 6 (six!) answers to:
Weekly Engagement Data. Knowing how deeply participants are engaging with the program is a powerful metric. But it's a metric that's only sustainable to measure if the program has an online component. This, incidentally, is reason enough to ensure a part of it lives online!
Net Promoter Score. NPS measures how likely your participants will promote (or criticize) your program. If measured, its charm lies in enabling comparisons between programs and across time. This throws up best practices and helps set new benchmarks.
Metrics of very tangible outcomes. Self-reported data, enabled through a tech platform, actually has high emotional value and recall value. To illustrate this, let's go to a feature of the Potentialife platform, which is its ability to calculate how many hours per day a given leader has 'positively reinvented'. A sample finding could be, 'Leaders of X program now spend 45 minutes more per day having authentic conversations with their team members' and that makes as much of an impression as a real-life anecdote would!
Comparative metrics. 'Major / Significant / Somewhat / Not at all' is a great scale to measure the impact of a program on cultural values or leadership attributes. With this, one can create impact charts that match the organization's leadership frameworks or culture pillars. In our experience, this is an impact metric with high recall value!
An end product is also 'living proof'. Sometimes, having participants create an end product is, itself, living proof of impact! Around two years ago, we started leveraging our programs to enable participants to craft their company’s culture book. Thanks to this, we realized that creating proof points is not only about measurement. A Culture Recipe Book, for instance, is itself evidence of impact!
Direct and indirect KPIs. Many times, it's difficult or off-limits due to the access, data, and commitment it requires. But all said and done, KPIs are the holy grail of impact measurement for a business, and one's ought to be on the lookout for opportunities to measure them.
Measuring impact of a 'soft', intangible topic like a program is a glorious opportunity that most people just aren't seriously thinking about
There are various ways to measure impact, and we hope we've left you with some ideas. Big bonus: Collate stories that reflect your data!
Impact measurement is not an exact science. Every metric is subjectively received by its viewer.
This is why our parting thought is to have a bouquet of dynamic metrics that allows you to triangulate. To paint different pictures. To tell your stakeholders different stories. To discover what really excites them.
While you're singing your song, your stakeholders will join in for the chorus only if they like the tune and understand the lyrics!
And it's the job of impact metrics on both those counts.
