Impacto: Further Reading
Read Impacto: User Guide first!
Hints & Tips
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
Impacto In Action
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.
