I spent the weekend watching my son play field hockey. And I began to wonder, how do we quantify success in school hockey. Let’s be clear here, he doesn’t play for the A team, there are more losses than wins! We can’t really quantify success as scoring the most goals. What is the impact that we expect hockey to have on his life and how do we measure that we’re achieving that? That defines what success should look like. We look at other things like teamwork, did they pass the ball and pass well, did the play go according to the plan, did everybody put in their best effort? Things like that.

This train of thought sparked a comparison to measuring success in a non-profit. We often find donors, particularly international government donors, who measure success by the number of beneficiaries with whom you’ve engaged. The higher the number the more “success” the program is having. However, we know that bums on seats in a workshop don’t necessarily equal changed lives. There is so much more at play. And you should take all the factors into account if you are to really understand what success looks like for your organization.

Have you defined the change that you want to see in the world, even if it’s impossible? An organization I’ve worked with has defined their ultimate goal as ‘the end of othering’, which they know is never going to happen in their lifetimes, but that’s what they’re aiming for. So how do you quantify success? It can’t be achieving the goal because we know that is not realistic. Success has to be more tangible, more visible, at a smaller scale. You can’t measure the impact that your organization is having. It is very difficult to measure change quantifiably. But you can measure the indicators that imply that change is happening. What are the factors that go into creating the impact that you desire? Break it down into its parts. How do you know if you are being successful at those activities?

If my son’s goal is to be a good teammate, then improved passing, means improved communication, means improved teamwork, and he’s on the way to achieving his goal. So we watch the passing in the match and call it a win!

How do you know that you’re succeeding as an organization? I’d love to hear your stories!