Benefits Realisation - The Benefits Design Process

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Sun, 11/15/2009 - 18:47

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A colleague asked me over a coffee “how do you go about identifying, defining and quantifying benefits? How do you create a benefits realisation plan?”. I think hidden behind the question was a number of thoughts:

  1. Were you just bluffing?
  2. Can we really realise these benefits if we only follow the project plan we ourselves prepared (with coaching and support, of course)?
  3. Should we aim to only realise a % of the benefits, in other words is the Benefits Realisation Plan a work of optimism to get the investment?
I’m always delighted to share my methods. For those who can’t get an outside consultant with expertise in this area, this page helps so you can prepare to realise the benefits of new projects and care for the populations you serve and steward public resource. For those who are reading about me with an intention to hire, it means you can sanity check my process.
NOTE this description could just as easily have sat in Benefits Realisation – Good Projects in Public Sector section. Words underlined are due to have further information added though it isn’t complete just yet.
 

Mature

My process has matured over the years, and I’m delighted to say has stood the test of time – even the very rapid assessment process which can be run within months of the start of delivery can yield an estimate of future benefits, and when we’ve followed up the initial rapid assessment over a period of years, the additional data bears out the initial findings (though of course with a lot more statistical confidence).
The process is based on the confluence of a number of different themes: the balanced scorecard, Bernice McCarthy’s 4-mat, Cranfield benefits planning, OGC MSP and OGC Prince2 updated for 2009.
For ease of representation I recommend using a [Benefits Dependency Network] template. I’ll expand each area as time goes on
 

Begin with the end in mind

  1. Every investment has [strategic objectives] (one or sometimes a few). These are the key, and your benefits will contribute to these. Why are you doing this project?
  2. What do you need to be (what will the organisation or project team look like, be like, be doing) in order to achieve your objectives?
  3. How will you achieve this?
  4. Between 2 and 3 are the benefits, the things that you can measure and that everyone agrees represent making a difference
  5. Sanity-check the benefits you’ve identified in step 4 against a balanced scorecard
 
Process
People
External
Clinical or Quality Outcomes
Patient or User experience
Internal
Effective use of resources
Impact on Staff and ability to retain and recruit
 
  1. [Sanity check the Benefits Dependency Network] (from the left, HOW, Benefits, WHAT, WHY) checking for
a.       benefits not tied to the strategic objective(s)
b.      double commitments (benefits with not enough actions to realise them)
c.       actions that don’t make a contribution
d.      etc
  1. for each benefit, with the frontline staff who do the work and have the most invested in achieving a successful outcome (you can also involve other stakeholders eg service users)
a.       define [how you will measure progress and achievement] (it doesn’t matter whether the frontline staff are actually doing the recording and measurement themselves or whether it’s done through another function; it is important that they decide what shows whether the service is working or not)
b.      decide how the measures will be reported – remember prepare your reports for staff and service users as board members are people too
c.       “people do what you inspect, not what you expect” . Be mindful of what happened to Shroedinger’s cat (the process of measuring affects the system being measured) and [be careful what you measure]
This process can be applied to individual services, to workstreams, and to whole health and care economies. The advantage of working this way across a larger group of individual services is that you can examine the contribution each service makes to the overall needs of the community.
At this point I must emphasise that there’s so much work needed caring for service users, nobody is going to lose their job. Far better to identify those services that don’t contribute and redeploy people, than to wake up 2 years’ from now and say “so what I’ve been doing for the last 24 months hasn’t helped anybody?” – recipe for suicide.
 
I look forward to working with you to implement this, engaging front-line and support staff in the strategic and tactical needs of the health and care of the population and ensuring we do our own management instead of needing it forced upon us.

 

Comments

Recent Additions and Updates

A moral dimension to consulting

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Wed, 02/08/2012 - 22:11

Moral dilemmaIt's easy to assume that all of our decisions are purely rational, but they rarely if ever are rational.  And they always have consequences for others, usually consequences that we think we could not have predicted.

But consultants are not here to make decisions, only to provide information and advice.  Does this somehow absolve us from a moral responsibility?

 

The Ten Commandments in Professional Services (6-10)

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Sun, 02/05/2012 - 16:56

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Interpreting God's Commandments

I've written previously about applying the first five commandments to Professional Services.  Here I show how Do Not Murder, Do Not Steal and so on are just as relevant commandments in the nuance and subtlety of modern life as they ever were.

Read on - and there's an invitation to comment!

The 10 Commandments in Professional Services (1-5)

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 21:56

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Two greatest commandsThe Ten Commandments apply just as firmly in each aspect of our daily life as they apply to the whole of our lives.  I'm a management consultant, and on this page I explain how the first five of the Ten Commandments apply to management consulting and professional services.

Getting GPs involved in Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG)

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Sun, 01/29/2012 - 23:26

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Life in the YearsMost healthcare providers, in UK the same as everywhere else, get paid for each activity they do.  If someone needs care, they get paid.  If someone is well, they don’t.  So there isn’t much incentive (for the healthcare provider) to keep people well, even though it is much better for the person, much better for the nation, and much lower cost.  Minney.org Ltd is working with one CCG to generate enthusiasm and involvement, and the results are fairly successful….

Clinical Commissioning Groups and the NHS

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Sun, 01/22/2012 - 16:34

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Commissioning Innovation

As we race forwards into clinical commissioning, there are lessons to be learnt from other people.  The latest book “The Innovator’s Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care” by Christensen, Grossman and Hwang points to some things we need to take account of. It makes good reading . . .