How do I use the Impact Playbook?
- Nicole Mc Neilly
Conducting an impact assessment takes time. From reading the Impact Playbook ‘cover to cover’ and ensuring you have the right skills in-house, to collecting and reporting on what you have learned, you need to make sure that the effort you put in is commensurate with the value that you get out, and importantly, balanced with the scale of the activity that you are measuring the impact of.
What is it for?
The Impact Playbook is a like a cookbook taking you through a process to design an impact-focused project and to conduct your own impact assessment. You can pick and choose what works best in your context.
How long does it take to follow the Impact Playbook’s four phases?
How long is a piece of string? So the saying goes. It depends what you want to do. It also depends on the skills and competences you have, and whether or not you bring in external expertise. Therefore, it’s hard to give an indication of time per phase.
Where there are workshops planned (e.g. in Phase one) we try to set out approximate timings. In the other phases, it’s harder to say because you might do this work alone or in collaboration with a couple of colleagues, but not in a workshop setting.
Phase two is quite long and rich with explanatory content. We’ve learned that this is where people struggle the most, so we have added a lot of new content and expanded the structure. In addition, we make it clear that you might need additional help
There is no mandatory content. Rather, the Impact Playbook sets out a process that you can follow in full or in part, and adapt to your own situation.
What value do I get out of it?
The Impact Playbook is designed to encourage learning by doing. Therefore, by testing yourself on what you know, following the different steps and using our tools, we expect that you’ll be able to do this even easier in the future. It might seem like a lot in the first instance, but you’re on your way to becoming what we call an ‘impact practitioner’ - that is, someone who uses impact to improve and learn more about the impact of their work. We’d love you to join the club!
I want to measure impact for a small project. Should I apply all the Impact Playbook steps?
You should ensure that the effort you put in to evaluating the project isn’t more than the project itself! For example, evaluators often recommend that the evaluation ‘budget’ or time allocated is 5 - 10% of the project budget. This is rarely the case, unfortunately, but it’s a good indicator of the type of time and resource you should invest.
For a small project, then, consider if you want to really measure impact. Maybe you could start with an evaluation first (and look at some ideas in Phase four). If you are doing multiple small projects, you might want to consider what the impact of this is as a whole instead of per project.
The Impact Playbook is designed to be flexible and a ‘pick and mix’ guide. You can use what works for you most at the time.
Do you have a hard copy of the Impact Playbook content?
No. We have, the past, printed copies of Phase one of the Impact Playbook, but the content in the online version is now more streamlined and up to date. You can still review the original Impact Playbook PDFs but we strongly recommend that you use the online content. Don’t forget that with Confluence, you can easily download and print the pages you need. We recommend that you don’t do this for sustainability reasons, but if this helps you, then this might be something you can do.
How can I send feedback?
We would love all feedback. The new online Impact Playbook is easily updated, so we can implement changes very quickly. Please send all feedback to impact@europeana.eu. Nicole McNeilly, the Impact Advisor, will get back to you as soon as possible.
Do you have actual training (instructor-led or otherwise) on the Impact Playbook?
Not at the moment. However, we do plan to make a course on a learning management system in the near future. Stay up to date by joining the Europeana Impact Community!
Tips.
Read the Impact Playbook and try to understand how each Phase sets the scene for the next.
Talk with your colleagues about what you want to achieve and how you might do this with the resources you have.
Plan realistically and for the long-term.
Don’t be afraid to reach out! We might be able to put you in touch with someone in the Europeana Impact Community who has faced the same challenges you’re experiencing, or you can ask the Listserv group when you join the community.