As a consultant and grant-maker, I’ve read a lot of outcome statements – the good, the bad, and the ugly. From that experience, I’ve identified my top 10 tips for writing strong outcome statements. Overall, if nothing else, make sure your outcomes are meaningful, measurable, and manageable. This requires that they be specific. Read on . . .
Your outcome statements should be . . .
#1 Outcomes not Outputs
My first tip to writing strong outcomes is to just make sure they are, in fact, outcomes and not outputs! Outputs tell me how much you did. Outcomes tell me what difference it made. Outputs tell me how busy you are. Outcomes tell me how effective you are.
#2 Specific
Your outcome statements should make it perfectly clear what difference your program makes. I shouldn’t be left wondering, “What does that mean?” This often requires including an indicator in your outcome statement. Indicators answer “How do you know?” and “What does that look like?”
#3 Focused
Sometimes organizations, especially when they are new to outcomes measurement, are hesitant to define success too narrowly, for fear they will then miss some of their impact and undersell their success. To avoid this, they often define their indicators broadly, leaving themselves lots of options. When your outcome statement includes more than one “or,” I start to wonder if you know what you’re trying to do.
#4 Segmented
While our outcomes need to be specific and clear, they also need to be defined for the program as a whole, inclusive of diverse participants and their experiences. However, not all clients participate at the same levels or in the same services. In those cases, I encourage organizations to specify “who” in their outcome statements, so they can define success for different subsets, when that’s meaningful. For example, ___% of participants who _____ will ________ . . .
#5 Meaningful
Your outcome statements should be meaningful to your team. The data you collect should represent information that they value and trust. If you’re counting what’s easy to count instead of measuring what matters, you’re wasting time and energy. You’ve got a problem when your team looks at your outcome data and, instead of using it to make decisions and improvement, they say, “Yeah, but . . .”
#6 Measurable
Your outcome statements should represent change that you can measure. To be able to measure it, you’ve got to be able to define it clearly (see above) and then have the tools, resources, and time to actually measure it. If you can’t measure it, can you say you’ve achieved it?
#7 Related
Many of us believe, based on experience, research, and theory, that our programs contribute to long-term impacts that can change the trajectory of our clients’ lives. Few of us, however, have the resources (time, money, or tools) to measure those long-term impacts. I encourage organizations to rely on research and theory to articulate the long-term impacts of their programs (see #8), but to only promise and measure the outcomes that are most directly related to their specific programming and interventions.
#8 Compelling
Increasing the specificity of your outcome statements will often make them more compelling. Sometimes, though, you need to include a little extra of the “so what” when you’re reporting your outcomes, especially to your external stakeholders in documents like newsletters, annual reports, marketing pieces, and even grant reports. Not every reader will understand the nuances of the problem you seek to solve or the needs of your population, so they might not understand the significance or value of the changes you’re making.
#9 Sensitive
By sensitive, I mean sensitive to change. I see a lot of organizations who set and achieve outcome goals consistently at 95% and above. Yes, this could mean your program is impressively effective and consistent. But, more often, it means you’ve defined success too broadly and set the bar too low. Time to step it up.
#10 Manageable
Don’t overdo it. Sometimes less is more. If you try to measure too much, too soon, you’ll burn your staff out and drown in data. Start small. Start focused. And then evolve based on learning along the way.
How do your outcome statements stack up?
Through our 12-month training and coaching program Operation: Outcomes, organizations receive the training and coaching they need to articulate meaningful and measurable outcome statements and develop the tools and processes to measure them.