Benefit Realisation Planning

How do you make sure that the new museum / wing / store you are building delivers in the long term?

As i wrote, there’s a difference between the major project delivering on open day, and the activities of the year ahead to ensure that the project is a long-term success, not a white elephant.

I haven’t seen this method in Australia, but I learnt the powerful management tool in the UK when i was part of the leadership team for Darwin Centre Phase Two, a new collections, research and programming space opened in 2009. Led by a professional ‘Program Office’, we produced a Benefit Realisation Plan. I’ve put a tiny segment of it up as a google doc so you can see, adapt, use if you wish.

That project had some very clear deliverables — what would exist on opening day. Exhibition spaces, Collection stores of a certain size and so on. But there is no point having exhibition spaces if they aren’t seen, aren’t impactful on audiences and so on. And new collection stores are pointless unless they are housing specimens well, allowing access and research and so on.

Looks like a lot of work; why do this?

At the end of a project, the contractors disappear, staff are reallocated. Attention and momentum dissipates. A mechanism for focusing the organisation’s attention on using the new thing well, getting the most of it, is essential. The plan shapes the Business Plan and budget, staff workplans and so on.

It also ensures that success can be monitored and reported upon — hugely important for maintaining trust of funders, fulfilling funder contracts and so on.

And finally, it allows for better reflection on what worked and didn’t. (In my dreams, these would be published so the whole sector can learn!)

How and when do you do it?

When you are about two thirds of the way through the project. For us, two years before opening, and about five years had passed since the architectural competition. That’s enough time elapsed that the outputs of the project area clear — we know what we are building! — and also far enough in advance to inform the way it was finished, and how future corporate plans were written.

How? The usual way. Meet, talk, consult, revise, talk, revise, redraft and finally secure management approval. The logic of the template provides the structure.

1. What is the thing you’re making — what will exist on opening day?

This is the basic thing, think of it like a subheading. ‘New Collection store’ for example.

2. What are the benefits this is going to deliver?

There may be many of these. ‘Improved access to collections for researchers’ and ‘better pest-proofing’ for example. These are split up into quant and qual criteria, with each having measurement methodology, owners and a current baseline so you can measure improvement.

3. What needs to change?

Here’s the good bit. Write what you have to do to achieve the target.

These activities might be before you open, or years after.

Using it

It’s no use if it’s just paper. During major corporate activities, such as planning for the next financial year, or developing a senior leader’s forward job plan, refer to this plan. Track the actions. It is useful to build the reporting into Board cycles; also to allocate a responsible owner (usually the CFO).

Long term benefit

Culturally, it focuses part of the organisation on what comes after the major project. It’s empowering and motivating for teams to have longer-term activities and targets, reducing that big project fatigue/exodus.

It enables remedial actions to be identified earlier, because any innovative project will have hiccups.

These plans enable the project to have a ‘smooth entry’ into the Business As Usual activities of the organisation. It lessens the feeling that a project team has ‘dumped’ a new thing onto the organisation.

It demonstrates professionalism to funders, both as you do your ‘last 5%’ fundraising and as you steward your partners in the five years following. It reduces the ridiculous timesuck Development teams face hunting down data years later.

Most of all, it makes it more likely you will actually deliver. If the project is ‘stock up your pantry at the weekend’, then this planning is like setting out your meals for the week. You don’t need to, but it makes you more likely to still have great food by Friday. Who doesn’t want that?