What is the impact that your organisation is striving to achieve?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You\u2019ve got an answer, haven\u2019t you? Maybe it came to you straight away or maybe you had to think about it but you\u2019re quietly confident that you have a reasonably coherent answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is that impact the same as your colleagues would say? Is it the same as your Board would say? And as your customers \/ clients \/ members would say?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my introduction to Organisational Performance<\/a> I said that achieving high performance starts with a clear understanding of your desired impact as an organisation. It stands that there needs to be broad understanding and buy-in to that desired impact in order to ensure that people are pulling in the same direction. Key stakeholders need to be agreed on what winning looks like in order to achieve the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is reasonable to question whether your customers must also be bought into that impact. It may not be absolutely necessary, but the most successful companies have established their desired impact in a way that customers are an essential part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take Tesla: \u201cTo accelerate the world\u2019s transition to sustainable energy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or Nike: \u201cBring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.*<\/p>\n\n\n\n *If you have a body, you are an athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Can you tell me what our desired impact should be please?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Not in this short article! To be meaningful, it has to be completely bespoke and build on why<\/strong> the organisation exists. It needs insightful stakeholder engagement that pulls together answers to big questions like \u2018what do our customers value most?\u2019 and \u2018how are we uniquely placed to succeed?\u2019 and \u2018would people care if we didn\u2019t do this?\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To me the Tesla example is really strong and speaks for itself. Arguably the Nike statement is lacking an emphasis on their position in clothing and footwear production. It works well for them alongside the storytelling in their powerful marketing campaigns though of course that\u2019s a luxury not everyone can afford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Winning Strategies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For membership-focused charities and other service-oriented organisations, the impact must be clear from the perspective of members. One charity I led on strategy development for was \u2018developing the leaders of tomorrow\u2019 whilst a sport governing body I worked with was ahead of the curve in being the first to adopt the ambition to be \u2018a sport for all\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n