CHAPTER 4
Using a Measurable-Results Orientation
Let’s assume for a moment that you’re writing a proposal to a foundation. More than likely, the foundation’s RFP (request for proposal) will ask you to state quantifiable, measurable objectives. Because your objectives are the expression of your project’s intended results, the funding agency probably will also ask you to include a plan for evaluating (i.e., measuring) the project’s outcome and your performance. This is standard operating procedure for foundations as well as for U.S. local and federal government agencies because, quite simply, they want some measure of assurance that their money will be well spent and will generate a return on their investment. For multiyear projects, they want to be able to measure the results of one year’s effort before funding the efforts of another year. If you’re like me, you find these agencies’ desires reasonable and unobjectionable.
In many ways I, as a potential client, have the same desires, and you shouldn’t object to them. For most of the work you do for me, I want change and I’m willing to pay you to help me get it. So I might request some evidence, after your project is completed, that change has occurred, and I might request some plan, included in your proposal, for how you will determine whether change has, in fact, occurred. Of course, I might not be or need to be so rigorous. I might be satisfied if the evidence is anecdotal—that is, if some people in my organization tell me that they believe change has taken place. Or I might be satisfied if the evidence is personal—that is, if I myself believe that change has occurred because things look and feel different than they did before your involvement. But sometimes this “good feeling” is not enough. I might only be satisfied with hard evidence, the numbers, objective rather than subjective proof of improved processes, saved money, better-served customers, and the like.
Even if I don’t request such information, your providing it in your proposal could differentiate you from your competitors and thus be very persuasive. There is, however, a major obstacle: You can’t achieve measurable results unless your project involves implementation. Only after, and sometimes during, implementation can I expect processes to be improved, money to be saved, customers to be better served, or market share to increase. Only Implementation Projects can provide measurable results, which I define as tangible, quantifiable, demonstrable improvements in my organization. So only in Implementation Projects can you promise such concrete results. But in Insight Projects and Planning Projects, you can provide what I call a “measurable-results orientation.”
Measurable-Results Orientation: The Insight Project
Let’s recall the three kinds of projects discussed in Chapter 2, remembering that a combination of them is not only possible but common.
In an Insight Project, I don’t know if I should change because either I’m not certain that I have a problem or I sense that a problem exists but I’m unsure of its nature, scope, or severity. Therefore, I need insight to determine if I should change or if I should maintain the status quo. I might, for example, have some questions about my manufacturing processes. They might be suitable or they might not; I don’t know. Perhaps they are terribly inefficient, or perhaps they are adequate but improvable. I don’t know, but I might be willing to engage you to conduct an audit or a competitive assessment to provide me with that insight. You might benchmark my processes with someone else’s to determine whose are better. That insight is not a measurable result; it is not by itself a change in any of my business processes. Therefore, you can’t express measurable results by the project’s insight objective. But note how you still might be able to provide a measurable-results orientation (see Figure 4.1).
In an Insight Project, I am paying you for insight. That insight is beneficial to me and is what I expect you to deliver. But you can go beyond my expectations by looking farther ahead, by including content in your objectives slot that indicates the measurable value to me and my organization if we act on that insight and move ahead with subsequent planning and implementation. Your methods slot could provide a general discussion of tasks related to evaluating potential savings of subsequently closing the gaps, and the benefits slot could discuss the potential value of closing them. Note the key word subsequently.
FIGURE 4.1 An Insight Project’s objective that expresses a measurable-results orientation
Measurable-Results Orientation: The Planning Project
In a Planning Project, I know that I need to change but don’t know how, and so I desire a plan for changing. But you can exceed my expectations by looking farther ahead, by including content in your objectives slot that indicates the measurable value to me and my organization if we were to implement that plan. Once again, you will not be providing me with a measurable result (a realized improvement) during your project; I’ve only asked you for a plan. Therefore, measurable results can’t be expressed by the objective itself, but within the objectives slot you might be able to demonstrate a measurable-results orientation (see Figure 4.2).
The benefits slot could indicate possible savings if the plan were implemented, discuss the benefits of the measurable results for my organization as well as for me, and stress the possible realization of measurable results (and the benefits that might accrue) even before implementation.
FIGURE 4.2 A Planning Project’s objective that expresses a measurable-results orientation
Given that you haven’t yet completed the plan, you might ask how it is possible to include potential measurable results. Isn’t including measurable results like those in Figure 4.2 just bad business, leaving you open to criticism (or, worse, a lawsuit) if later you can’t deliver them or if I can’t implement your plan successfully?
These are valid questions, so let me address them. First of all, I’m not saying that you should include measurable results in all proposals, not even in Implementation Projects. Second, I’m not suggesting that you can exactly quantify the expected results (e.g., reduce cycle time from 30 days to 10 days); you might be able to quantify within some range (e.g., a reduction of 10 to 20 days). Third, note that the quantification in the preceding planning example is qualified: After careful consideration, you believe these are the results that could be expected after the new process has been implemented. In summary, then, while you cannot promise measurable results in all projects, you can communicate an orientation toward such results.
Additionally, to the extent that you can identify and even implement short-term, typically minor improvements during your projects, I will be pleased. These are measurable insight or planning results, but not the primary ones or the significant ones that will accrue when the entire plan is implemented. This “low-hanging fruit” or “pay-as-you-go” orientation is good. Although it doesn’t address implementing my primary result, I still consider it a measurable-results orientation.
Your orientation toward results, your focus on trying to achieve recognizable and quantifiable change for me and my organization, tells me something about you. It tells me you are interested in my eventually receiving measurable results rather than just another report that will sit on my shelf.
By the way, if you, in fact, have all that experience listed in your boilerplated qualifications section (e.g., you have performed 40 similar studies in my industry over the last two years), you should be able to provide me some estimate of my potential measurable results. By including a measurable-results orientation that considers my potential risks and rewards, you indicate your true qualifications to support me—far better than do most qualifications descriptions or discussions I’ve had to read or sit through. So consider generating some reasonable estimates, if only to provide you and your team some targets.
Measurable-Results Orientation: The Implementation Project
In an Implementation Project, I want to change—I know what to do, but I need additional resources or expertise to implement the change. That change will alter my organization, and that result can be measured. Therefore, you should propose achieving an objective that will increase or decrease certain factors by definable parameters. In an Implementation Project, then, measurable results can be expressed by the objective itself (see Figure 4.3). The benefits slot can focus on the benefits of achieving measurable results not only to my organization but to me.
In Figures 4.1–4.3, your project’s objectives are the expression of S2, of my organization’s desired results, whether those results are new insight, a well-developed plan, and/or implemented actions. The achievement of these objectives will produce the results I am paying you for, and these results will be beneficial to me and my organization.
FIGURE 4.3 An Implementation Project’s objective that expresses measurable results
CHAPTER 4 REVIEW
Using a Measurable-Results Orientation
Measurable results are tangible, quantifiable improvements in my business processes.
Measurable results can occur only in projects that involve implementation.
Therefore, Insight and Planning Projects cannot provide measurable results, but the objectives slot in insight and planning proposals can express a measurable-results orientation (i.e., a range of what might be likely to result after a plan eventually is implemented).
WORK SESSION 3: Applying a Measurable-Results Orientation for ABC
To apply a measurable-results orientation, you know that you must try to quantify those items in Cell 6 of the Logics Worksheets (see Figure 3.25) that fall under the category “Benefits from Implemented Plan.” Some of those items, such as “continued autonomy” vis-à-vis Consolidated, aren’t necessary or even possible to quantify. Others, such as “higher morale,” are probably too difficult to quantify. Many of the items, however, are subject to quantification or estimation, assuming that you have relevant data from ABC or from previous projects whose results have been tracked.
Therefore, you decide to get relevant data from follow-up questionnaires that were sent to clients at various times after projects were completed. These data track implemented actions, measurable improvements, that could be attributed to projects completed by you or your firm. The question you want to answer is something like this: In projects similar to the one you hope to conduct at ABC, what measurable results have accrued in terms of overall cost-effectiveness of operations, improved product quality and service levels, maintained or increased market share, and so on? Assuming those data are available and that you are confident that the situations have enough similarities, you plan to incorporate a range of such increases, decreases, and improvements within the proposal itself to indicate to ABC that you, in fact, have significant experience and expertise to achieve the company’s project’s objective.