VIP Development and tools

25 April 2012

Sara Burns

Triangle Consulting Social Enterprise

The start of the story

• Triangle working on outcomes for frontline organisations since 2002 and created the Outcomes Star tools

• Proved very popular – 14 sectors covered by 2012

A family of Outcomes Star toolsA family of Outcomes Star tools

© Triangle Consulting 2011

Learning applied to organisations

• Sustainable Sun 2006

• Governance Star 2008

• Workforce Wheel 2009

Common benefitsPeople like the tools because they find them useful. Help people in organisations understand the

changes needed Contribute to a shared language and

understanding Focus and inspire discussion Provide managers and funders with outcomes

information

The challenge for infrastructure • Two or more steps removed from the

outcomes

• Harder to get information back even when it is gathered

• Long health checks maintain a focus on process not on changes

• Difficulty articulating their impact

• Breadth and depth of infrastructure organisations and consortia

VIP finding a solution

• Useful tools so people use them

• Extending the tools already developed

• Available to use on-line so the data is gathered automatically

• Simple!

• BLF agreed funding for three years to make this solution a reality 2009-2012

Not quite so simple...• Initial consultation

autumn 2009 showed the need for a clear overarching framework and comprehensive set of tools

• So we set to work....

Massive buy in & collaboration•Almost 100 organisations helped develop the pilot framework and tools •Piloted by 55 infrastructure and 42 frontline organisations July-Oct 2010 •Huge range of local, regional, specialist and consortia

Heart of VIP three dials

• Completed collaboratively - encourage reflection and focus discussion

• Visual picture of strengths and needs as a basis for planning

• Support development work and provide outcomes data

• When completed again, provide evidence of distance travelled

Organisation Dial

10 point scale1-2 No awarenessPractice below minimum standards and nothing is changing

3-4 some awareness Practice below minimum standards but initiatives emerging to improve things

5-6 Adequate practice Essential systems in place

7-8 Mostly good practiceMostly good but only adequate in some areas

9-10 strong practice, on-going improvement. Strong and on the lookout to innovate and improve. May lead the field by 10

The Sector Dial

External Agency Dial

Range of tools to collect evidence

• Internal organisational survey• Survey of sector organisations• Three case study templates • Interview guide for external agencies • People questions• Action and review grid

Revisited through research

• Different starting points – majority need to understand impact generally & impact for IO specifically

• 76% had used VIP and found it useful to evidence impact

“Evidencing impact is vital for funding and there is increasing pressure to demonstrate impact; the more we can’t the more it will count against us”

• 95% describe the tools as either ‘excellent’ or ‘mostly good and useful’

The tools are vital – they present data in a visual way and make impact real rather than something vague

 VIP provides a systematic way to catch everything rather than being ad hoc

• Starting point and willingness/being ready to change key to how IOs use VIP

Where are we now

• Early days in the lifecycle of an important innovation - need time to embed

• Support and nurture early adopters and enthusiasts – future champions

• Build a critical mass of agencies

• Encourage and support funders to ask the right questions