Phase one workshops - an outline

1. Background, theory and impact focus (up to 1.5 hours)

TIME: up to 1.5 hours

OUTPUTS: none

WORKSHOP OUTCOMES:

• Growing familiarity with impact theory, terminology and key tools

• Thinking about different types of impact

• Clear idea of the type of impact you think you create or want to create

ACTIVITY:

• Ask workshop colleagues what they understand by impact and why they think impact design or measurement is or isn’t important. Ask your colleagues about their expectations about the process and write this down.

• Discuss the project or activity that is the focus of the workshop. What is it about, what problem is it supposed to solve and who is involved? Why will an impact assessment or impact design approach benefit the project? Is everyone on the same page?

• Introduce the Impact Playbook

  • Introduction - everything you need to know about the Impact Playbook

  • Introducing: Impact Playbook

• Introduce the Change Pathway and the key terminology

  • Step 2. Build your Change Pathway

  • It’s helpful to introduce the Change Pathway using a filled in example that you can walk through, e.g. from a project or scenario that everyone is familiar with.

  • Consider doing a short quiz or learning exercise to make learning the terminology practical.

• Lead a high-level discussion about types of impact that you think or wish to create using:

  • The Strategic perspectives

  • The Value Lenses

  • Ask your colleagues: what types of impact do we create, either as an organisation, or through this activity? You can ask questions like:

    • Are you most interested in the social aspects of we activities, and the people we create value for?

    • Do our stakeholders need to know what we contributed to the economy?

  • Consider using short case studies of projects to help your colleagues brainstorm different types of impact. You can do this in breakout groups. You can use some of the examples given on the Strategic Perspectives page, for example.

TIPS:

• Are you clear about what project or activity will be the focus of your impact design or assessment?

• Save the date - send invitations to your colleagues. Ensure that you have a diversity of perspectives in the room.

• Ask someone to help you facilitate, e.g. to write notes on the (digital) whiteboard.

• Read through the guidance on the Strategic Perspectives and the Value Lenses, and have a clear idea about where you go next once you have completed your Change Pathway.

2. Stakeholder mapping, prioritisation and Empathy Maps

TIME: at least 1.5 hours, possibly more, depending on how familiar you are thinking about your audiences and how likely it is that your workshop attendees will come to a consensus quickly

OUTPUTS:

• List of prioritised stakeholders

• Preliminary Impact statement(s) for your project

• First additions to the Change Pathway

WORKSHOP OUTCOMES:

• More in-depth way of thinking about your stakeholders and the value you create for them

  • Growing confidence with using the term ‘impact' and discussing your impact

• Focus on the project or activity that you will measure the impact of

ACTIVITY:

• Complete a mapping of stakeholders and prioritise the resulting list

  • Stakeholder mapping and prioritisation workshop

• Complete Empathy Maps for the prioritised stakeholders

  • Empathy Map workshop

• Focus on what your impact should or could be for your prioritised stakeholders by using the categories of the Strategic Perspectives tool - emerge with your impact statement(s)

  • Strategic perspectives

• Add your impact statement and stakeholders to a Change Pathway

  • Step 2. Build your Change Pathway

TIPS:

• Make sure the groups do not get too specific and spend too much time imagining what the stakeholder likes and doesn't like. Your primary job is to find out what this stakeholder experiences as pains and how your work can help relieve that pain (gains).