Step 2. Build your Change Pathway

Intended Learning outcomes

This page is designed to help you:

• Explain key terminology used in the Impact Playbook and in the Change Pathway

• Clearly say what you want to achieve through your impact assessment or design process

• Use the Change Pathway and its different sections as a tool for Impact Design

1. Designing a impact-centred project from the start?

Use the Change Pathway creatively by identifying the impact that you want to create and the short and long-term outcomes that you need to see to help you get there. When you have agreed these, you can then start to design the activity that will deliver these outcomes, as well as to design the impact assessment to measure how you get on.

You might find it easier to start your Change Pathway working from left to right. You might start thinking about the stakeholder first and based on what you know about what they enjoy, design an activity just for them. Then you could map out the outcomes and impact that you think and hope will happen as a result.

You could also think about the stakeholder and what you want them to experience through your work. You would then start from right to left, and design a project that will deliver these outcomes.

2. Designing an impact assessment for an activity that has already begun or that has finished?

You might already know about the impact that you want to create or you might already have agreed outcomes or objectives from your project. Have a look at your project documentation and see what you have already written down, and where this could already map out onto the different parts of the Change Pathway. This will help you identify any gaps. You can then brainstorm around the information you already have.

You might find that what you discover in the Change Pathway exercise challenges what you thought about your project, or inspires you to make some changes. This is exciting - it shows that the tool is both creative and immediately useful.

3. Mapping out the impact of a bigger activity or organisation?

The components might be the same, but you might need to think at a less granular level than the Change Pathway. Have a look at the Theory of Change section in Phase four for more inspiration about this similar approach.

IMPACT: Define the impact that you are trying to create

Impact should be high-level - think about social, economic, environmental, innovation or operational impact. This is a good moment to review the Strategic Perspectives tool.

Your impact might not be something you think about everyday. Normally, we think about things that are much shorter-term and observable. You will not be able to measure the impact that you think you are or want to contribute towards. That doesn’t mean that it’s not important to map it as the end goal. You’ll emerge with one or more impact statements on the right hand side of your Change Pathway.

You might have a few layers of impact. For example, first creating impact for your stakeholder or sector, and then for wider society or the local economy. The Change Pathway doesn’t have a specific space for this but you can be creative and add (digital) post-in notes or lines to show this.

How does my impact statement align with my organisational mission or vision?

There should be a lot of commonality between them. Your organisational vision and mission should set out the change that you want to have in society in terms of (for example) social or economic impact. If it doesn’t look very long-term or at a high-enough level, then now might be a good time to use the Impact Playbook to further develop your organisational vision or mission.

OUTCOMES: Map the short and long-term outcomes for your stakeholder

What specific and measurable changes do you expect to see in your stakeholders that can be attributable to your actions?

Something has to change to create the conditions for impact. These are your short and long-term outcomes. Each outcome changes something which then means another change may take place.

You now need to map out your short- and long-term outcomes. If you are stuck, have a look at the Value Lens to think about the types of outcomes you might create.

Start thinking about the long-term outcomes (change) that you want your stakeholders to experience. Then think about the short-term outcomes that can help you deliver this. You can cluster, prioritise, test and draw connections between them as you are brainstorming, or once you have got everything down on paper. It’s important to think about how one outcome might or will lead to another. This will help you test if the pathway makes sense or if it is likely to happen.

Tips.

• Turn your Change Pathway anti-clockwise by 90 degrees and think about it as a ladder. If your impact is the highest rung on a ladder, how would you get there? By climbing the other rungs on the way in the short, medium and longer-term.

• Don't worry about whether you can measure or prove the outcomes exist at this stage.

• We normally think that one change has a knock-on effect that leads to another. However, if it’s helpful, when you are brainstorming you might want to think about activities that must happen in the short and longer-term that help to ensure that these changes take place.

OUTPUTS: Identify your outputs, if you can

Outputs are the quantifiable results of your activity. Examples could include the number of people reached or the number of workshops held. They help you describe what happened in numbers. They are very different to the attitudinal and behavioural change we think about when we talk about outcomes. You might not be able to able to list your outputs yet.

If you get stuck, have a look at this extra guidance on identifying short and long-term outcomes.

ACCOUNTABILITY LINE: Map out where you are accountable for change, and where you are not

As we go further to the right of the Change Pathway towards impact, we become less and less able to influence the changes that take place. This is because the change is beyond our control and that there may be other factors influencing the change. That means that at some point, we are no longer accountable for the change. This is where the accountability line comes in. Draw a line where you think you are no longer accountable in the Change Pathway.

Read more about the accountability line.