Business Growth: Impact Analysis

This continues our series on tools to help grow your business

I talked about change with a good friend of mine. We discussed proposed changes one organization contemplated making in policy and procedures. We contemplated the affect of making decisions without considering all the consequences or impact.

Two sister organizations made similar decisions based on the same model. Flaws in their decision making process became apparent as they implemented the previous changes. The flaws occurred because they only considered the positive impact of their decisions. They neglected to consider many of the negative consequences.

Purpose of an Impact Analysis

The International Council on Monuments and Sites discussed differences between effects and impacts. They define a purpose of an impact analysis.

"An effect is brought about by a causal element e.g. visiting an historic site
gives satisfaction. The impact of that effect is that this satisfaction induces
one to buy some books about the site, to come back another time, or to visit
other similar sites. Thus contained in the word "impact" is the power to
produce change. We could say that an impact is the "effect of an effect", or in
other terms again, that the effect is an action while the impact is a reaction.
It is this reaction that impact analysis wants to capture."

Mindtools says

"Impact Analysis is a technique designed to unearth the "unexpected" negative effects of a change on an organization.

It provides a structured approach for looking at a proposed change, so that you can identify as many of the negative impacts or consequences of the change as possible."

How to Conduct an Impact Analysis

Hank Marquis outlined Impact Assessment in 5 Simple Steps (links go to articles other than Hank Marquis'):

1. Define the extent of the change proposed
2. Determine key differences in the changed state (proposed) from a point of reference or the original state
3. Focus on the possible effects of the key differences from step #2
4. Sort and prioritize the possible effects (#3) from the key differences (#2) based on risk and possibility (Consider Marquis' 10 Steps to Doing it Yourself CRAMM)
5. Make a decision using the results

Come back on Saturday to assemble the tools we've discussed into a coherent toolbox