Shaping conversations

Independent consultant, Tim Podesta, used the Value Toolkit to help a client gain greater clarity and alignment on strategic drivers and outcomes.

When I piloted the Value Toolkit with a client, I knew what I was getting in to. I had had long conversations with Ron Lang (former Impact Director at the Construction Innovation Hub) during the development of the toolkit. My background spans investment analysis and I had authored a paper for him on applying the toolkit with an investment perspective for both private and public industry. I had wanted to see how it would fit with standards and best practice. So, it was good to be able to apply my expertise in a live setting.

My client was developing a skill centre for the green industry. We used the Value Toolkit with a strategy working group and articulated a Value Definition which now forms a core part of the client’s strategy document. We focused on producing Value Profile outcome statements which we then prioritised.

The outcome statements were impressive. The Toolkit provided a library of statements, generating 10 of our final selected statements. In fact, our top three prioritised outcome statements all came from the library. The library was helpful both in providing us with alternatives to consider and in becoming the basis for looking at outcomes going forward.

The structure of the Toolkit allowed us to see at a glance how priorities were balanced across the four capitals. This, in turn, shaped conversations around how we could better consider the full picture.

Some participants, for example, started off viewing the exercise as all about the climate. The Toolkit helped them see the many aspects in which people, and social outcomes are involved. Then there were people on the human and social side who asked whether equality and diversity had been addressed sufficiently. So, that was drawn out a bit more. Through the process people saw that there is also a business context around climate. The way in which the Toolkit presented information allowed people to see connections across a much wider context.

Use of the Value Toolkit can clearly add value – especially when a mixed private/public sector perspective is required. I suggest the Toolkit could benefit from placing more emphasis on where the revenue will be in any initiative.

The Toolkit could also be used to facilitate a focused exchange of learning and for benchmarking. Its wider application could lie in encouraging a networking of ideas. It could cut across organisations, to become a mindset, a culture of learning. It’s all about finding a way to have conversations within and across organisations about value in the context of the four capitals.