By Willem Bettink
The project coordinators in the region decided last year to
radically change the format as they felt there was not enough interaction and
added value generated. The workshop
embraced the open space methodology
which generated many unexpected sessions about a variety topics from learning
routes, communication and social media, gender equality and many more.
The theme of this workshop was: Managing for Impact-one
of those development concepts that
appear clear at face value, but are not . As a participants said : “over these
4 days we have unpacked the concept and it has become clearer for me what it
means to me in my work in our project”.
Over the days we unpacked the managing for impact into its
key elements from the perspective of a project team . One of the results was a practical diagnostic tool
referred to as the learning wheel for managing for impact. It brings together 12 elements that enable a project team to
diagnose its performance.
The outcome of this diagnosis enables a team to discuss and
agree on corrective actions to improve its delivery to achieve impact. One of
these elements is “ continuous experimentation with new ideas and
approaches as a source of innovation and performance improvement”.
Almost all- if not all- development programmes are change
management programmes. Research and our own experience has proven
that a typical organizational change programme has a 20-30% success rate
. Or if we look at innovation and start
–up businesses: only 10-15% make it through year 1 and go on to achieve sustainable profits.
If we truly believe in “managing for impact", it implies that project teams, given the
change and innovativeness of development programmes, continuously need to perform at the top of
their toes. Delivery has to be of an exceptional quality while it is
conditioned by known obstacles , unplanned interferences, unexpected natural
disasters and what have you.
This implies that a project team needs to have
a strong predisposition to openly reflect upon its challenges and
mistakes , harvest the learning (in particular from failed attempts ) and
share this learning with its
stakeholders.
In my opinion , managing for impact is closely linked to
return on investment. If we do not focus persistently on achieving impact,
creating value, we are not ensuring the
pay-off to the rural poor for what they invest to engage with the changes and
innovations promoted by development programmes.
A final personal
note: that change is possible whether at personal, process, technological level I am strongly convinced off. While I was in
Arusha I witnessed the transformation of
a colleague to be the happiest man in Africa.
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