Delivering Great Social Value

Impact Intersection is a purpose-driven professional services firm that partners with socially conscious small to middle market organizations, both for-profit and nonprofits, to create a lasting, sustainable impact.

Drawing on decades of for-profit and nonprofit experience’s, four focus areas are required to execute a strategic plan in any organization. While an organization may emphasize one focus area more than another at different times, and each focus area will improve an organization’s social impact, all four focus areas are needed to achieve high performance. The intersection of the four focus areas forms the framework for great social impact.

Aim the Organization:

The first principle that we introduce is the one of leverage. Some actions have more impact than others. 

• The Inspiration: Although most organizations have vision and mission statements, few use them to effectively link strategy, operations and people processes to drive performance- or outcome-based results.

• The Challenge: In the absence of a collaborative strategic plan and alignment with organizational capacity, organizations often misallocate their limited financial and people resources.

• The Lesson: Organization assessment and strategic alignment are critical components to initiate sustainable change that results in improving social impact.

Plan Beyond Comfort Zone:

The second principle is that of focus. This is embodied in the rule, focus on less to achieve more. 

• The Inspiration: Organizations that fail in effective planning and prioritization of goals often fall short of their long-term goals.

• The Challenge: Without a robust and inclusive planning process, organizations struggle with getting multiple stakeholders to support the implementation of the goals, projects and programs.

• The Lesson: Prioritization and stakeholder developed theories-of-action provide the foundation for performance- or outcome-based results.

Implement with Discipline:

The third principle of discipline incorporates the ability to follow-through on commitments with a results-driven mentality. 

• The Inspiration: The importance of strategy implementation has increased exponentially. Companies that differentiate themselves have an integrated feedback loop that links long-term goals to short-term performance indicators.

• The Challenge: Given the amount of change that organizations experience, those that do not manage strategy and monitor implementation fall short of achieving desired goals.

• The Lesson: Operationalizing the strategy management process improves accountability and visibility into implementation effectiveness.

Align the People:

The accountability principle values holding individuals accountable to the organizations, as well as, to each other. 

• The Inspiration: Human capital accounts for a large percentage of operating expenses, requiring strategic alignment to maximize investment.

• The Challenge: Without talent alignment, fiefdoms and silos dilute accountability and impede an organization’s ability to implement a strategy.

• The Lesson: Talent management, with cascaded performance objectives, aligns and improves individuals’ accountability to the organization, and to each othert.