What does value really look like? And how do we demonstrate it — not just in the work we do as practitioners but in the value our organisations bring to the people they serve?
During last Thursday’s Demonstrating Value session, we tackled the persistent challenge of evidencing value. Not just the value of our own work — though that’s part of it — but the broader value and benefit that our organisations, clients, products or services deliver to their communities and stakeholders.
Measurement and evaluation are two separate but critical entities. They shouldn’t be reduced to ticking boxes or long lists of stuff that has been sent out but, unfortunately, that reduction happens all too often. The purpose of the process is to help us understand whether our strategic intent has been fulfilled and whether the outcomes we hoped to achieve have actually been realised.
When the latest iteration and evolution of the Barcelona Principles was released last week, I was struck by how much focus still sits on tasks, outputs and media when actual value is to be found in the relationships we build and sustain — the ones that give our organisations the licence to operate in the first place.
I was very pleased to share the ways we can use AI — both as passive LLMs and agentic collaborators — to provide us with real time relationship and reputation measures plus AI-supported reporting systems to demonstrate value clearly and credibly.
One of the most important reminders? Don’t be measuring the wrong thing. Value is contextual. It’s defined differently in every organisation — which is why your starting point must always be research. Audits, discovery and dynamic listening help us to understand not only what people think and feel but where we’re starting from, where we want to go and how we’ll know if we’ve made it.
Evaluation is a constant process. It allows us to learn, to adjust and move forward. Our measures are the signposts along the way, guiding our direction. If we don’t know where we are headed — and why — then we risk wandering off-course from the very beginning and we will lose people along the way.
Write your awesome label here.