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Step 3. Analyse, learn and improve

Step 3. Analyse, learn and improve

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Last updated: Aug 17, 2023
3 min read

There are two steps to this section. Use the expandable sections below to find out more.

Interpreting and writing up your findings, and drafting recommendations

You have collected your data. Now it’s time to interpret your findings, draft some recommendations and improve your impact assessment processes.

WHAT YOU DO: document your findings and analyse them, drawing out recommendations. 

THE OUTCOME: SMART recommendations lead to improvements in your impact assessment processes. 

Whatever approach you have taken, you will have to document and analyse what you have learned and how you want to use it. This means that you will have to arrange it in some way so that you can analyse it and draw out recommendations. 

Tip.

Consider adding a review point to your document and putting a reminder in your agenda, and revisiting it at a later date to check in on what improvements have been implemented.

Data analysis

Phase two of the Impact Playbook shares guidance and tips on data analysis. To keep this Phase concise, we won’t replicate that here.

Write your summary

It is helpful to arrange the findings from the past steps, whether you undertook a debrief, shared a questionnaire, or led a TBI cycle, into a short and concise summary. You can then add in your recommendations.

Developing actionable recommendations

Actionable recommendations should be SMART - specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. That means that you should: 

  • Identify to whom they apply (e.g. the senior management team, curators).

  • Organise them according to a timeline for implementation. Consider short, medium and long-term, or immediately, or a timeline (e.g. identifying specific months of a project process).

  • Identify those recommendations which are essential in contrast to those which are nice to have (not essential). Put essential and urgent recommendations first. 

  • Be clear about the purpose/action that is being recommended. 

  • Write in a numbered list or bullet-point format. 

  • Be concise, but include explanatory text if necessary. 

  • Include or begin with a modal auxiliary verb, for example by starting with ‘must, should, could’, or using an active verb like ‘create a new digital archive’.

Improve and make changes

WHAT YOU DO: apply what you have learned by improving your impact assessment.

THE OUTCOME: even more effective impact design and assessment, and more impactful programmes.

Remember, you don’t need to make big changes to have an impact. You can improve your impact assessment approach and/or your activities by small tweaks in different areas. Where big improvements are needed, you might need to put some thought into how these are presented so that they are easily understood. For example, for each recommended improvement, you could write a short statement explaining the rationale behind it. 

Prioritising your recommendations

You might have a big list or you might only have a couple of action areas. Either way, we recommend that you prioritise the improvements, and in doing so, carefully think about which resources should be directed to which improvements first.

Checklist

  • You have documented your write-up and recommendations so you can come back to these at a later date.

  • Each recommended improvement can be clearly explained and linked back to the data and analysis.

  • You have completed your write-up and analysis.

  • You have drafted recommendations.

  • You know what to improve in your next impact assessment.

Next step

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