Consulting
Of course, we do that! But not the usual way. We start with this fundamental principle: “If you do not decide on a destination, neither you nor anyone else, can get you there!”; The journey to success starts with one simple act. The defining moment is when “YOU” decide what you want to do and what you want to accomplish!
Outcomes Are Hard
Another fundamental principle. You have to know your “intended impact” in order to measure your progress. You must set a measurable objective to be achieved in a specified time frame. Without a well-defined target, you cannot lay out a set of activities or create a road map that can get you to your goal. Intended Impact Planning asks four questions and creates four goals:
- What? (do you hope to achieve)
- How Much? (in very specific, measurable terms)
- For Whom? (that’s right, name them)
- By When? (not “in the future” but specifically when)
These goals have to be established in realistic proportion to the scale of your organization. Your goals must be defined by the resources you can bring to bear in the here and now. Not to worry. There’s always a friction between the size of the goal and your resources. Don’t let this shrink you dreams. The disparity is not a difficulty, rather, that’s where all the fun begins! Limiting yourself to goals within your capacities undermines success. So keep your dreams, but let impact planning create your road map to goal fulfillment.
Getting this balance right is where we can help. Our version of consulting strives to help you get your targets defined and develops the performance measures that allow you to test and refine your activities. We support you in the pursuit of accomplishing impact that matters. Once you know where you’re going, the rest is details.
Getting Started
We like to start with a Needs Assessment Interview. We have compiled a small set of documents which allow you to create a simple overview of your concepts, goals, resources, and time frames. Just ask us and we will be happy to send you an interview packet. Here is a very simplified version of what our consulting services provide:
Needs Assessment Review
Needs Assessment consists of a series of questions intended to stimulate thought about the factors relevant to your concept or organization that will either facilitate or hinder success. This is a good first step. Giving careful thought to potential challenges before you begin implementation is a good way to increase the likelihood of success and to facilitate initial consultation.
Creating & Implementing – Intended Impact Plan
This is the good part. Together we create and memorialize your dream! We describe the “where you are to where you want to be” details. We collaborate to create a uniquely tailored plan full of measurable events and goals, all set within reasonable time frames.
Quality Indicators and Fidelity
Traditional fidelity measures evaluate how faithfully an implementation is to the original impact plan. These measures are based on the assumption that the more an implementation strays from the original plan, the greater the likelihood that it will lose its effectiveness. These types of conclusive assumptions do a disservice to any meaningful evaluation of progress and goal fulfillment.
Rather than advocate implementations of plans that exactly match the road map, we understand that individuals and organizations may want and need to adapt the plan to meet the unique needs of evolving real time circumstances. We believe that such adjustments, when necessary, can increase the likelihood that the plan can be sustained and flourish. In addition to implementing the key components of your plan, we encourage both individuals and organizations to measure effectiveness by the use of quality indicators established as a percentage of goal fulfillment.