From proving to improving
The cultural shift we want to achieve is to move from ‘measuring impact for funders’ to ‘maximizing impact for the target audience’. This changes the purpose of data collection on the expected and realized effects from proving impact to improving impact.
A cultural change is required to get from ‘to prove’ towards ‘to improve’: people and processes will have to focus on learning and improving on the basis of data. But how do you facilitate this cultural change? The following preconditions are important:
Case study
Europeana Foundation has developed a playbook in collaboration with Sinzer based on their own experience in making steps towards an impact-oriented organization.
Step 1
Acknowledging the existing culture
Change requires acknowledging the following: What is the dominant culture? What (implicit) norms and agreements are at stake? What patterns have become ingrained? How is existing data (not) being used?
What you can do:
Management’s dedication towards the transformation to an impact-oriented organizational culture. Sustainable cultural change is usually not possible without the support of an organization’s management.
Organization-wide input on the current culture: Involve all employees and ensure that all input (positive and negative) is collected. Make it an open discussion aimed at critical reflection. What are the challenges? What are the obstacles to learning and improving? What works well and should be preserved?
Urgency: Be clear about the importance of a cultural change and the focus on impact-oriented work. What happens if you continue bussiness as usual? What positive changes can a new culture bring?
Step 2
Creating commitment and support
Employee support is crucial for an effective cultural transformation. What bottlenecks and challenges do you see in Step 1? What are the shared ambitions and interests that would require working in a more impact-oriented manner? What is needed to achieve this?
What you can do:
Engage in an dialogue with all employees and departments. Make an inventory of who wants to use which data (relating to the effects of activities or services) in what way and for what purpose. Are there different user-groups, for example a group that collects data in the field and one that translates those insights for communication purposes? Then make sure that the various users, their goals and their activities are clear to everyone.
Start with shared ambitions and interests (e.g.improving the effectiveness of your service to people who need it) and work towards supported solutions and an organization-wide vision that is recognized and acknowledged by employees.
Formulate SMART goals around ‘impact-oriented work’ to make your objectives for change concrete. This helps the implementation towards an effective transformation and allows for a periodical montoring-process on whether the 'change objectives' have been achieved.