The first step towards establishing which improvements will have the biggest impact on your organisation’s performance, is to have robust evidence on what’s currently  working and why. One option is to agree how success can be measured using Key Performance Indicators as part of your business planning approach.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) should:

• Be quantifiable measurements of the improvement in performing an activity that is critical to the success of your business.
• Relate specifically to a fundamental core activity – for example an aspect of sales, satisfaction or repeat business.
• Be measurable at frequent intervals, so you can  see whether performance has improved or declined, and identify trends and patterns.
• Be capable of influence by the organisation, to give people a reason to invest effort and achieve a positive shift, or correct a negative trend.
• Be linked to targets, to give teams in the organisation something to aim for.

Sharing data on the organisation's performance in relation to its KPIs is crucial to retaining the motivation of teams and ensuring everyone has a sense of ownership.

The risk at this stage is that the impact of activity is measured and recorded without this information being used to stimulate improvement. The best way to develop a culture of continuous improvement is to regularly encourage your people to contribute ideas and suggestions for improvements, and to build this involvement into your business planning approach.

For more information on how Investors in People can help your impact and improvement strategy, register for Interactive here.

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