Are we there yet? A case for benefit registers
When creating the documentation required for a new project, risk registers are often one of the first things to be drafted. Of course, risk registers are a valuable tool for helping projects to stay on track by monitoring and mitigating potential or real risks that could derail the intended aims. But are we too quick to focus on the things that could turn into bumps in the road, at the expense of tracking the things that are intended to go well or, indeed, are going well? If the last two years of work have taught us anything, it’s the vital importance of recognising and celebrating the wins, however small.
Project aims are not the same as project benefits, though, since the former sets out a project’s intentions (e.g. to reduce burden for academic and professional services staff), while the latter define the gains that will be realised if those aims are successfully met (e.g. by having fewer burdensome processes to administer, I am able to spend more time delivering against strategically important projects). So, why and how should we track project benefits?
Institution-wide change projects are slow burns, and their benefits and successes can not only take a while to be realised, but can sometimes be lost sight of (or even be hard to identify) when the team is embroiled in the detail of particular workstreams. While being able to keep sight of the bigger picture, and use this as motivation, is a necessary skill for anyone working in the change space (or higher education generally!), there are points in any project where, like a child being subjected to a long car journey, you just want to know, ‘Are we there yet?’ Or, if we’re not there, ‘Are we anywhere close?’ The advantage of a benefits register, I would argue, is that it provides an opportunity not only to ensure projects can stay focused on ensuring tangible change happens, but also to regularly reflect on and celebrate successes as they occur in the project’s lifespan.
But where do you start with creating a benefits register? They can be relatively straightforward things to create where a project has a tightly defined remit or small scope. But what about projects that cut across the intersections between process and systems review, culture change and a need to fundamentally rethink ways of working? There are certainly a lot of moving parts, many of which are pretty nebulous. Add to this the fact that universities are also having to balance their contractual position and obligations with the expectations, wants and needs of staff and students, and that is a lot of competing demands to manage when trying to know where to start with creating a benefits register for a significant project.
Fundamentally, though, the common thread is wanting to make our organisations better places for people to work and study.
With that in mind, it’s here that I think an exercise using Johnson and Scholes’s ‘The Cultural Web’ model can be a helpful starting point to visualise where we want to get to and to start to identify and define project benefits that can be monitored over time.
‘The Cultural Web’ identifies six interrelated elements that help to make up the ‘paradigm’ — the pattern or model — of the work environment. By analysing the factors in each, you can begin to see and track the bigger picture of an organisation’s culture, what isn’t working, and what needs to be changed. My view is that the model can also be used as an exercise in visualising and working out where we want to be, and to use these statements as the basis for developing a benefits register.
Below are some examples of statements developed from my own current project, some of which seek to introduce new ways of working and others which seek to maintain and enhance current practice.
- Stories:
- ‘I have a better work-life balance’
- ‘I feel empowered in my role to identify opportunities to create positive change, and am able to follow these through’
- ‘My team and I are able to work in a much more proactive, rather than reactive, way’ - Rituals and routines:
- A high value (and reward?) is placed on colleagues living by the University’s values
- There is confidence in consistency of decision-making - Symbols:
- The organisation’s values are front and centre of its activity at both an institutional level and within academic faculties and professional services
- Tangible steps are taken in teams to reduce reliance on tacit knowledge and increase transparency - Organisational structures:
- Teams are more willing and confident taking on projects that cut across organisational structures
- Leaders are comfortable sharing power in cross-cutting projects to reach consensus and drive progress
- We avoid proximity bias and challenge it where we see it - Control systems:
- The minimum number of people required are involved in any given process, and are involved at the stage where they add most value
- Individuals are trusted to take responsibility for decision-making appropriate to their role and seniority
- Leaders are comfortable doing post-hoc assurance (rather than implementing first-line controls) and have developed appropriate mechanisms for doing so
- We have an appropriate, proportionate and agile reward and retention system - Power structures:
- Senior leaders proactively seek and respond to feedback and critique from within the organisation
- When working with senior leaders, colleagues feel able to (constructively) push back and challenge when necessary, and can do so without fear of negative consequence
I have no doubt there are planners or data analysts — or simply those with a penchant for data — reading this and thinking, ‘But it’s all qualitative!’ What can I say, my PhD is in English Literature and I will argue for the power of qualitative data and storytelling until the cows come home. On a more serious note, though, I think there is genuine merit in starting with a more vision-based exercise and using this to help define the benefits an institution-wide project plans to deliver, how you will measure them (by quantitative metrics or qualitative insights), and thereby allow yourself and your team to celebrate these along the way.
Aren’t projects with benefits what we all want, after all?
