Introduction
This post recognises the great work being undertaken by the ROI Institute http://www.roiinstitute.net and luminaries such as Elling Hamso https://www.facebook.com/ellinghamso which has provided me with the insight I needed to improve the experience of those engaged in benefitsdrivenchange.
As stated previously, one of the distinct attributes of Benefits Management is that it positions and sets the expectation for all stakeholders within a change initiative. But identifying stakeholders and engaging them meaningfully within the change process needs careful consideration and preparation. This is where the thinking behind Event ROI can be exploited.
Fundamental benefits realised through Event ROI
The basic benefits of using Event ROI thinking in the benefits cycle are:
- Reduce the overall cost of change to the organisation
- Provide for a richer and more inclusive organisational culture
- Understand the costs associated with staging event
- Be able to calculate the ROI of each event
- Develop and improve event management to ensure optimal ROI is achieved
Essential to the activities within the change lifecycle is that the participants are enabled to contribute to the full. That is that the event organiser and the each participant achieved a valuable and rewarding outcome. To do this they must feel confident and willing to challenge norms and explore areas of interest that may be outside of their current thoughts.
Take the example of Benefits Workshop; that is a workshop activity being undertaken to identify and gain a common understanding of what ‘Benefits’ and ‘Dis-benefits’ should are to be realised through the successful meeting of a given objective.
Drawing on the thinking and methods promoted by the ROI institute the following can be seen as relevant to an activity:
- Both for the event organiser and each participant the following should be established:The process for organising the event can be analysed and improvements to increase the ROI made
- Their objectives to be met as a consequence of the event
- A method measuring to what degree the objectives were met must be established
- The process for organising the event can be analysed and improvements to increase the ROI must be made
This approach has the added benefit that all of the stakeholders will have had the opportunity to prepare for the event and be able to participate more effectively.
