Organisational Development

Why is it important to understand impact?

CoPs are established around a shared purpose, often underpinned by objectives.  In setting the purpose and enabling participation towards meeting objectives, it is useful to understand the extent to which it has been achieved. 

We know this is important for sustaining individual and collective motivation especially given that members are volunteers, often making time to contribute on top of their ‘day job’ and; that making time to take stock and reflect on what has been achieved, is a key component of learning and development.

Starting with the 'Why', helps to increase the number of active participating members and recruit new members; recognise the benefits of participation and; raise the profile of the CoP and its activities more broadly across the University.  As such, it is also important to be able to answer key questions for example:

• Why should the University support this CoP? 
• Why should I support my staff in participating in this CoP? 
• Why should I give up my time to participate in this CoP? and ultimately, 'What's in it for me?'

What is value creation?

In relation to CoPs, we use the term ‘value creation’ instead of ‘impact’.  It focuses on the value that CoPs create when they are used for social learning activities for example:

• sharing information, tips and documents
• learning from each other’s experience
• helping each other with challenges
• creating knowledge together
• keeping up with the field
• stimulating change
• offering new types of professional development opportunities

The value created moves between the personal and professional impact on individuals, the ‘domain’ and the University.

Where do we start?

We can understand the value created through collating and analysing different sorts of quantitative and qualitative data through CoP activities, whether it is participation in learning events, project outcomes, member feedback or web analytics. 

At Stage 3: Launch & initiate it is critical to establish mechanisms and plan to collate data from the outset for example:

• set up an excel spreadsheet to log participation numbers at events and to record quarterly web analytics data
• identify measures that will help understand the impact of project outputs/outcomes
• identify 1/2 points to survey members to understand their experiences of participation of learning events, adapting the MS Forms template
• seek regular feedback from the Sponsor and/or those colleagues working on projects to understand broader impact on the ‘domain’/University

How do we understand value creation?

On a cyclical basis, these data points are triangulated to understand the value created over the course of the year.  This provides an opportunity to reflect and understand what works, what learning can be taken forward and critically, a moment to celebrate the value created through the CoP.   

These activities foster sustainability through participation and collective ownership.  It also helps to prepare for the start of the next cycle, focusing attention on the impact of active participation around a shared purpose [Find the energy and Renew].  They can be used to plan and deliver the different activities that lead up to the start of the next cycle [Find the energy and Renew].