The One Where I Explain What I Do

How are the things I do relevant to you and your work? And what on Earth do I do anyway?

Image by SHVETS at Pexels.

I’m glad you asked. It’s the ‘Chandler’ question, and I’ve had it for years. So with no apologies for the basic language, I’ll explain…

Essentially, I take care of certain management activities for businesses and public services who may not have the time or skills to do them.

I trade as Impact and Value, and this is a solo operation, and I work with Canadian, UK and global clients. I’m entirely independent, not tied to one company or sector, and I work across multiple topics. I occasionally go in-house with an organization for a while and then return to this work.

So what are these management activities, and why should you care?

They are:

1) Quality Improvement

Quality improvement (QI) means routinely checking that the things you do actually work and are of value. It involves understanding the effectiveness and relevance of what your organization does and improving things whenever possible – not just when there’s a problem. It involves specific techniques for identifying areas for improvement, setting meaningful objectives, noting what’s working (or not working), reducing wasted time and effort and using carefully planned approaches to meet customer expectations. QI also helps ensure that you’re offering great value to customers and clients; if you’re publicly funded, QI helps taxpayers’ money go further, and if you’re a private company, QI will also eventually mean efficiencies and savings.

Ignoring QI can (among many other things) result in work that has no relevance or value to customers and clients and drains resources for no real gain. That's bad news for commercial operations and unforgivable for public services.

Not every organization has the skills or time in-house to work on QI, and that's when I'm asked to come in and help out.

2) Process Development

Process development (and process management) involves setting out the systems and steps that get work done, and includes creating procedures, work instructions and technical workflows. Processes are tools that make work happen in a logical, consistent and efficient sequence of well-planned actions. This reduces both errors and waste and helps you deliver great services or goods. Combine this with QI, and you’re on a winning trajectory.

Organizations that ignore the role of good processes often feature high levels of waste, health and safety issues, disorganized operations, poor quality products and services, and sloppy administration. Nobody wants to be (or work with) that organization.

Again, process-work requires experience and skills that not all organizations have in the team, so I get hired to come in and help.

3) Evaluation and Review

Evaluation and review are two ways of assessing how your work is going. Evaluation and review are related but slightly different concepts, and there are several reasons for doing them. They help us identify the causes of our problems and also our successes. They are especially valuable when we’re making long-term plans and in QI activity. If your work is publicly funded, they may also be required by the funding agency. You should already see that evaluation and review tasks work extremely well alongside QI and process management.

An organization that never reviews what it does will never fully understand what it does, and will never know how to avoid mistakes or build on its successes.

Normally, evaluation and review tasks are managed by people who weren’t involved in the work that’s being looked at. For smaller organizations and projects this often means bringing in an independent evaluator such as myself, and I have provided evaluation and review to clients many times.

4) Risk Management

In a nutshell, risk management is about spotting, understanding, and addressing realistic problems that could affect your safety, assets, operations, reputation or objectives. It involves identifying and assessing potential risks, developing controls to reduce the chance of them happening (or reducing their impact if they do), and monitoring the effectiveness of those controls. There are several ways to do this, and (because they're so important) they can be a little complex.

Every successful organization or business manages risk, and in some operations it’s a legal or regulatory requirement to do so. Organizations that ignore risk management are inviting avoidable loss, unsafe working conditions and (in some cases) legal action.

I advise all kinds of organizations on how to identify, understand and control operational risks, and I provide training resources and risk management materials to small businesses internationally.

Note: There are specific areas of financial risk and IT security that I do not support. I’m not qualified in those areas, and even if I was, they’re not really my jam.

5) Developing and Managing Partnerships

No organization ever really operates on its own. Each has outside partners such as suppliers, distributors, sponsors, or other organizations with similar objectives. Large organizations also see their internal departments as partners, and public sector organizations and non-profits often have several arrangements with others to help them deliver services. Developing partnerships involves building relationships with others which have to mean something, be based on trust, and offer each partner value for money. A well-developed partnership can help everyone involved share expertise and information and bring about success in achieving common goals.

Developing (and maintaining) partnerships is about more than grabbing a coffee with a supplier now and then. It can involve setting up agreements, lining up objectives, connecting different processes and styles, sharing risks and ideas, identifying a resource to support the partnership and lots of communication.

Turning down the chance to partner with others can mean missing out on opportunities to access skills or customers. Being a lousy partner will waste everyone’s time and effort (including your own). And some organizations are required to partner with others or risk losing their funding.

Once again, when a business or organization doesn’t have the experience or time to do these tasks, they call me. In my work, I have designed new partnerships to deliver services, managed major, high-level collaborations of CEOs, been a member of national professional networks, evaluated sensitive political relationships for large organizations, dismantled stale arrangements that didn’t work anymore, and written guidance on how to help partnerships thrive.

6) Additional Special Projects

Now and again, you’ll need to step back and look at the big picture and the context that you operate in, and you’ll need to respond to what you see. The responsive things you do for the whole of your business or your organization are your special or strategic projects.

These could include responding to change (for example, updated regulations or new technology) that affects your work, developing new services or programs (due to market changes or opportunities that you’ve spotted), carrying out some research and analysis to help you make decisions, or even bringing all of these together to make your long-term plans for the next few years.

And again, even if you’re the expert in your field, these may be skills you don’t have. And again (again) this is where people contact me to help manage change, prepare strategic plans and conduct analyses.

7) Engagement

Last (but certainly not least) would be connecting these tasks with the people and organizations likely to be affected by them, and those who could bring valuable information and experience into the planning. Those people could be customers, staff or partner organizations. This stakeholder engagement phase is my academic background and was my original area of consulting. I’ve been contracted many times to help projects and organizations connect with their stakeholders, and to review the engagement activity of others.

So how do I actually do these things?

There are three main ways that I get contracted to help out:

The first is via a freelance arrangement. Clients contract me temporarily to take on a specific piece of practical work on the topics above, and I provide focused expertise and support without being a permanent employee. This is flexible for both the client and myself, allowing me to join or create projects and add my experience to help them achieve their objectives. When the task is over, my contract ends with no ongoing commitments or overheads. I’ve recently decided to do more of this as it seems to be something that many clients are attracted to.

The second way is via consulting, where I work with an organization’s senior management, providing professional support and advice on bigger projects. In these arrangements, I offer deeper knowledge and guidance on the topics above, to help clients solve complex problems, make informed decisions and improve performance. These roles require me to bring a big-picture approach and provide high-level recommendations to help the whole organization. I have consulted for several large public sector organizations in Canada and the UK, as well as universities, charities and small businesses.

The third way is via coaching, particularly for new managers and business owners, or those with limited access to mentors. Unlike training, coaching helps managers focus on specific objectives, such as applying high-level skills, managing staff differently, or developing a consistent leadership style. Directors, managers, and small business owners often access coaching, and I’m one of many providers. I also offer external supervision for directors who have no manager themselves, which is less common.

Aside from these three main lines of work, I have a few entry-level products on the Fiverr platform and some digital resources for new professionals known as Pro Basics.

And finally, this is how that all fits together and flows from the basic services to the higher-level offerings:

So now you know! Not so vague and abstract after all, right?

Get in touch to arrange a free initial consultation call to speak about how I can help your organization or project.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to share this with your contacts!