What if we did a webinar?  Or took more grant applications?  Or created a foundation?  Or launched a new community program?  Or gave out more money?  My clients regularly toss around questions like these as they search for novel strategies and new ideas in social impact.  While these kinds of brainstorming sessions are fun and exciting, they can also be risky, even futile, if not linked to goals and objectives.

Strategies are mere roadmaps for producing results.   As such, devising strategy without defining success is much like asking for directions without picking a destination:  multiple enticing routes may exist, but we have no means to select the one that’s best and no way of knowing if we’re on track.

Mission Measurement’s outcomes-based approach to both strategy and measurement is the lynch-pin in our work with social change agents of all kinds.  By defining success in precise, measurable terms at the onset of each engagement, clients develop a clear and shared vision of their destination.  This destination guides all strategic decision-making, helps organizations make smart program investments and divestments, and states from the get-go how progress will be measured and communicated.  

Recently, one of my corporate clients convened a panel of social change experts to provide input on its grantmaking.  The thought leaders and social activists shared a plethora of interesting, creative and innovative suggestions ranging from social media programs to rich grantee support systems to broad-reaching consumer engagement.  It seemed that my client had more ideas than it knew what to do with!  Clarity came, however, in asking two simple questions:  1) what are we really trying to achieve through our grantmaking? And 2) which of these ideas will best produce these results?  By filtering strategies through an outcomes-based lens, the best path forward was easy to identify.