Everyone who works to make public service operate more effectively wants to impact the world. Having an impact is a great thing. It’s an important North Star for a person, team or organisation. What we do should make a difference in the world.
However, too often, the way that the concept of “impact” is used by organisations gets in the way of the real-world change that people are trying to create. In previous work, we have assembled evidence which helps to show that using outcomes as performance management tools doesn’t work, and this is similar territory. The idea that we can measure our impact to understand how well we are performing is seductive, but fundamentally flawed.