By: Kayleigh Weaver
December 15th, 2022
If you’re here, you’ve probably heard about our Results-Based Accountability Professional Certification BOGO Sale and are considering signing up. Doesn’t ring a bell? Stick around! Whether or not you enroll in the program, we’ll explore three strategies to help you and your organization progress on your impact goals.
Want to maximize the impact you make with Results-Based Accountability? Take the time to build your internal capacity.
Table of Contents
1. Systems Eat Tips and Tactics for Breakfast
2. System #1: Internal Capacity-Building
3. Component #1: Regularly Scheduled Mandatory and Optional Training
4. Component #2: Support the Development of Internal RBA Trainers
5. Limited Time RBA Professional Certification BOGO Promotion
6. Certification Sneak Peek: Turn the Curve Thinking, Language Discipline, and Common Purpose
7. Certification Clip One – Introduction to Turn the Curve Thinking
8. Certification Clip Two – Language Discipline
9. Certification Clip Three – Develop a Clear and Compelling Common Purpose
10. Learn More About the Results-Based Accountability Professional Certification and BOGO Promotion
1. Systems Eat Tips and Tactics for Breakfast
The Results-Based Accountability (RBA) framework is helping organizations and collaboratives around the world get from talk to action to make a measurable difference. There are almost infinite ways to get started with RBA, and there isn’t a single “right” way to approach this work. However, when it comes to the most successful RBA initiatives, there are commonalities we recommend emulating.
The main commonality we’ve noticed over the past 15 years working with clients worldwide is that establishing continuous improvement systems is paramount. Instead of one-off initiatives, you really need systems to achieve consistent results. Some of us here also like to say, “systems eat tips and tactics for breakfast.” We’ve found that our most successful clients are the ones who take the time to build the following three foundational systems:
- An internal capacity-building system to ensure sustainability through staff turnover (regularly scheduled RBA training, budgeting for RBA Professional Certifications, etc.) We will talk more about this system in this blog.
- A unified data collection and management system to continually drive the Results-Based Accountability engine (data collection and reporting systems designed to support the work like Clear Impact Compyle and Scorecard). We’ll talk about this system in an upcoming blog.
- Codifying the use of RBA as an official performance and impact management framework (organizational policies, using forms designed around RBA, etc.). We’ll talk about this system in an upcoming blog.
The rest of this blog will dive into the first strategy listed (internal capacity-building).
2. System #1: Internal Capacity-Building
There are two essential components to an internal capacity-building system to sustain the work of RBA:
- Regularly scheduled mandatory and optional RBA training (to build up the fundamental capacities to start practicing RBA internally)
- Support the development of internal RBA Certified Professionals (to master the framework and build the expertise needed to conduct internal training in the future)
3. Component #1: Regularly Scheduled Mandatory and Optional Training
Many RBA practitioners agree – investing time and resources in training and capacity-building is paramount. In this photo, Marcos Marquez (standing, right) provides RBA training and guidance to the Arkansas Department of Health in the creation of its State Health Improvement Plan.
Many seasoned Results-Based Accountability practitioners agree that mandatory training engagements and opportunities for continual development are essential to sustaining the work of RBA. For example, United Ways may be some of the most prominent philanthropic organizations implementing RBA today. We’ve worked with many United Ways to conduct RBA training, including United Way Worldwide, United Way of Central Iowa, United Way of Waco-McLennan County, Berkshire United Way, and United Way of Brazoria County. You can view case studies for all of these United Ways here.
When Clear Impact CEO Adam Luecking and I were researching for Social Sector Hero, we spoke with United Way Worldwide’s former senior director of impact and global results, Ayeola Fortune. When Adam asked what Ayeloa’s recommendations were for other organizations who wanted to achieve success with RBA, she shared, “be ready to invest in training and capacity-building, particularly for performance management, at least once per year.” Additionally, she encourages other leaders to “help people support continuous improvement locally” and “think about sustainability in your staffing, coordination, tools, and resources.” You can see all of Ayeola’s recommendations here.
If you’re interested in implementing the RBA framework successfully, we recommend having leadership, department heads, program managers, and all other vital players engage in training at least annually.
4. Component #2: Support the Development of Internal RBA Trainers
What does developing your own internal Results-Based Accountability consultants and trainers mean? You can allocate a budget to pay for RBA professional development training for your staff, like Clear Impact’s Results-Based Accountability Professional Certification Program. We designed this program to prepare staff to teach the framework to larger groups, facilitate data-based discussions, and lead RBA initiatives.
Once you’ve had a chance to hold organizational-wide RBA training, the Professional Certification can help key staff members master the framework and practice implementation on a relevant project to your organization. Students will also have the opportunity to practice giving an RBA presentation with our Certification Director.
Setting up an internal capacity-building system requires a team effort. No single staff member should be responsible for learning about and implementing the RBA framework. This wouldn’t be a fair, feasible, or sustainable approach to an impact strategy.
That’s why many of our clients fund certification for multiple staff members. Certifying numerous staff members in Results-Based Accountability can enhance teamwork by ensuring consistent language and understanding of RBA concepts. Staff will waste less time explaining RBA concepts to relevant individuals and spend more time engaging in planning and implementation.
5. Limited Time RBA Professional Certification BOGO Promotion
Occasionally, Clear Impact will run a Results-Based Accountability Professional Certification Buy-One-Get-One FREE promotion to help organizations who want to quickly build their internal capacity to teach and practice RBA. Organizations are also eligible to receive a 10% discount on new annual Clear Impact Scorecard subscriptions when bundled with an RBA Certification BOGO purchase. We are currently running this promotion through the end of 2022.
From now until December 31st, 2022, your organization can get one free course for every course purchased. All you have to do is fill out the form on our promotions page by midnight on December 31st, and our Certification Director will reach out to answer questions and collect payment. You’ll have 30 days from receipt to pay your invoice. We want to bring the power of RBA to as many people as possible. That’s why there is NO limit on the number of free courses your organization can get. Buy one get one free, or buy 50 get 50 free – the choice is yours!
You can learn more about the BOGO promotion, read course testimonials, and sign up for the course at https://clearimpact.com/promos.
Improve your capacity to achieve measurable results with Results-Based Accountability
Buy one RBA Professional Certification Course, Get One Free.
6. Certification Sneak Peek: Turn the Curve Thinking, Language Discipline, and Common Purpose
Now…the moment you’ve been waiting for! What will you learn in the Results-Based Accountability Professional Certification Course? Below, you’ll find three clips from our #TuesdayTips social media series. These clips include sample material from various course chapters.
At the beginning of each clip, Clear Impact CEO Adam Luecking speaks more about the course.
7. Certification Clip One – Introduction to Turn the Curve Thinking
“Ends to means” decision-making is a critical component of Results-Based Accountability.
RBA starts with the ends and works backward step-by-step to determine how you will achieve those ends. This step-by-step process is referred to as “Turn the Curve Thinking.”
What do we mean by ends to means? The “ends” are the improved conditions of wellbeing in the community or the clients you want to be better off. The “means” include the strategies and actions that will get you closer to the ends.
Ends-to-means decision-making is very important for organizations because program managers or executive directors often start by thinking about “what do we want to do?” instead of the Result they want to achieve.
This course chapter will dive deeply into the Turn the Curve thinking process.
8. Certification Clip Two – Language Discipline
In performance management, people frequently use the same words to mean different things and different words to mean the same things. That’s why a big part of Results-Based Accountability is establishing a “common language.”
Working on language discipline with your staff or training clients will ensure consistent understanding and usage of core RBA principles like “Population Accountability” and “Performance Accountability.” This distinction is arguably RBA’s most critical contribution to social and public sector work.
Population Accountability = accountability for the wellbeing of WHOLE populations like communities, cities, counties, states, nations, the world, etc.
Performance Accountability = accountability for the wellbeing of CLIENT populations of governments, multi-agency service systems, organizations, programs, units, etc.
Many of our clients use RBA terminology precisely as we’ve laid it out. However, many others prefer to invent their own vocabulary tailored to their needs and communities.
As long as you’re consistent, it doesn’t matter which terms you use to refer to any particular concept.
This course chapter will dive deeper into establishing a common language across your organization.
9. Certification Clip Three – Develop a Clear and Compelling Common Purpose
As our CEO explains in a recent blog about his book Social Sector Hero, “a Common Purpose is like a compass for your organization, partners, and grantees. It helps simplify your decision-making and creates alignment toward your collective mission. A Common Purpose also helps you ensure your investments and programming make sense for your particular strategy or set of strategies.”
We define Common Purpose as “Result (s) and Indicator(s) that are shared among partners and utilized to guide all strategies and activities.
A Result = the conditions of wellbeing you want for a whole population (e.g., all children in a city, county, or state). A Result could be “All babies in our county are born healthy.”
When you develop Results, it’s essential to:
- Use simple, plain language so everyone can understand what you’re trying to achieve.
- Avoid referencing data or “improvement” because these things refer more to services, which are relegated to Performance Accountability (Results deal with WHOLE Populations rather than client populations).
On the other hand, an Indicator = a measure that helps you quantify whether you’re achieving the Result. Indicators are things like “% of low birth weight babies.” Monitoring data for this Indicator would help you understand how you’re doing on achieving the Result: “All babies in our county are born healthy.”
This course chapter dives deeper into developing an effective Common Purpose through Results and Indicators.
10. Learn More About the Results-Based Accountability Professional Certification and BOGO Promotion
Check out these links if you’re interested in learning more:
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