Impacto is both a framework for thinking and a design and delivery process for communications and projects. As a process, it helps gain other people's commitment in our cause and it ensures that a team is aligned in its thinking.

Having completed an Impacto, the following outcomes should be evident:

• A powerful and engaging story can be told about a project or communication
• A team is aligned in its thinking around a specific project or task
• A team or an individual is clear about objectives and what needs to happen to get there
• An audience hearing the story is enrolled and committed

Impacto is particularly valuable when there is a need to:

• Structure an enrolling presentation or communication
• Map out a team's ideas around a particular venture or project it is about to embark on
• Get our own ideas clear around a venture we are about to embark on
• Gain the support of others
• Test for others' understanding
• Plan a meeting or series of meetings

To get started, find the domains where you feel you have some material, some interest, and some energy to state the case. Put down whatever you have. Emptied of this, take a stab at a domain which remains thin or empty. At the invention stage, do not concern yourself with how well the story hangs together. More important now to get everything you believe you know and want on the map.

It is only when we tell the story to someone else that we must follow the domains in the correct sequence. This is the key to building layers of understanding, agreement and commitment between ourselves and the others. The move from one domain to another offers a natural place to pause and check the level of alignment with the audience. And to listen!

PURPOSE

Purpose provides a foundation of meaning for the rest of the communication. If the purpose is unclear then the communication will be too. Purposes are the steadying forces on which the rest of the communication rests.

The following questions should prompt the right kind of content in the Purpose section of Impacto:

• Why put energy into this in the first place?

• Where does this effort fit in the overall purposes of the organisation?

• What is the group’s highest intention?

• What is required and why are we the people to provide it?

URGENCY

Urgency provides the context that is driving the need to do something. It explains why there is a need to act now.

• What is the opportunity – when does it begin and when does it pass?

• What risks do we face by inaction?

• What now threatens our progress/ existence?

• What is wrong with things which must be changed?

• What powers do we have that are not being fully exploited?

DESTINATION

Destination provides an appealing view of how the world will look once changed by a group’s combined efforts. Acting purely out of urgency may cause reactive, uncoordinated movement if there is no destination in mind. There is a need for a compelling set of outcomes to shoot for.

• What are the minimum outcomes that will still resolve our urgency?

• What is the best of all possible worlds we are shooting for?

• What do we want the good things we already have to evolve into?

• What changes in the world beyond our organisation do we want to contribute to?

• What will we become as a group in living out our intentions?

• How will we be operating as individuals as a result of our work?

• Who do we want to be five years from now?

SUCCESS PATH

Success Path provides a set of stepping-stones required in order to progress towards the destination. This may be stated as a strategy or as a plan of events. It will describe how the story of success unfolds over time.

• How do we get from our current situation to our destination?

• What changes will occur as we move from here to there?

• What is our game plan?

• What are the stepping-stones to success in this venture?

• Suppose we are standing in the future with our outcomes fully achieved. We are looking back in time. What did we do to get from there to here?

COMMITMENT

This is the reality of each individual’s personal activity. What actions are already being done and what other near-term actions are required? These actions should be measurable.

• How big a part of our work or life is this venture?

• What are the stakes for me?

• What are we already doing in service of this venture?

• What resources of ours have we committed?

• Where will things stand next week, next month?

• How can the others help and what do we need them to do?

Use the online tool

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Download an Impacto case study

When generating the story, capture ideas in whatever order they come up but write them down against the right domain. Go with the energy for whichever part of the story needs to be told, creating the story can be a free-form exercise.

If you have material for engaging someone already (for example a slide deck, proposal or email), map each part of it to one of the five Impacto domains to check for completeness and whether it follows a sequence that will lead you to getting commitment from your audience.

Rehearse the whole story - if there are gaps or disconnects, explore those sections further until the story flows.

When telling the story, tell it in the right order - don't miss a step, or follow them out of sequence.

Check for buy-in before moving to the next step, and don't assume silence is agreement!

If you don't have understanding and agreement from your audience, slow down or go back to find out what the issue is.

Key learning points:

• To engage people successfully and get their Commitment we need to understand their perspective, and tell our story in a way that makes sense to them – they may not want to start at the place which excites and energises us most
• Resistance to an idea can show up in any domain, but we need to make sure we are aligned on the fundamental issues of Purpose and Urgency to take action before we describe what that action is, where it will lead us or how we will go about doing it
• If we begin the conversation on the wrong step of the Impacto staircase, the other person will drag us back to the bottom – it's much easier to start there and move up the steps when they are ready to go with us

The Business Problem

The IT Department within a large organisation had been exposed to a solution that it wished to implement in a bid to make the company's invoicing & payments processing more effective and efficient. The group needed to communicate its intent to the Invoicing and Payments Department, which it knew would be despondent; the Invoicing and Payments Department had been using its existing system for many years and could not see any fault with it. Besides, the department does not like change.

Approach

It emerged that the key hurdle to overcome was that of the IT Department gaining buy-in and acceptance from the invoicing and payments department. It also became apparent that IT needed to communicate with the invoicing and payments department and tell a compelling story. The tool used to structure communications and to gain enrolment of other people is Impacto.

Workflow

We had an initial meeting with the Technical Director and representatives of the IT Management Team, during which it identified the problem – one of gaining the enrolment of another department, invoicing and payments. Also during this meeting the structure of Impacto was outlined as a possible means for framing communications. A follow up meeting with the IT Management Team (4 people), lasting half a day, focused on creating the story using the Impacto process and identifying the methods by which the story would best be communicated. The creation of the story was achieved through brainstorming, followed sifting for the key points.

The IT Department decided on giving a series of presentations to members of the invoicing and payments department, as well as drafting a proposal sent via email, to follow up the presentations. Impacto was used to structure both the presentation and the proposal.

The Process

The following data is a high-level summary of the key points emerging from the Impacto brainstorming session:

Purpose

• Purpose of IT Department is to ensure the company is using the most applicable, efficient and effective technologies for each business need. It continually assesses what is currently in use and measures it against what might be possible using emerging technologies on the market.
• The purpose of this project was to ensure that the effectiveness and efficiency of payments and invoicing was being maximised so as to reduce costs.

Urgency

• There has been a 15% increase in invoicing errors in the past three years, much of which is due to the technology currently used. This is costing the company an estimated $50,000 per year
• Customers are complaining that the time they receive invoices is not consistent and this causes them problems with their own systems. Some have threatened to use another supplier
• The technology department has identified three key flaws in the existing system
• There has been a an huge upsurge in the availability of new invoicing/payment systems on the market in the past two years

Destination

• Reduce costs associated with time spent following up invoices by 20% in two years
• A working system that greatly satisfies internal invoicing and payments department and customers – the system almost seems to run like clockwork
• No invoicing errors caused by the system
• Department is seen as best practice in invoicing and payments processing

Success Path

• Conduct final audit of system requirements with departmental staff
• Secure budget for new system
• Effectively communicate to customers the company's intent to overhaul system, explaining why and how the new systems will work and the benefits for them
• Train all staff on new system
• Implement new system
• Follow-up training
• Regular audits of system

Commitment

• Invoicing and Payments department accepts the need for change and embraces new system
• Employees give their time for training
• Budget is agreed for new system

Conclusion

Using the Impacto process, the IT Department was able to gain buy-in from the Invoicing and Payments Department, which agreed to the need for change and fully embraced the new system. The department has given feedback on the new system and most employees have indicated that they are happier at work as their daily routine has been made far easier. Their department is also held in higher regard internally.

A year after implementing the new system, time related costs are down by 12% so the team is well on course for hitting its 20% cost reduction after two years. Customers now receive their invoices at consistent intervals and there have been no system related errors in the first year of operation.