Executive Street News

Outputs and Outcomes

January 9, 2011 • • Print

In his book Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, John Bryson talks about the importance of measuring outputs (how well you executed your strategy) and outcomes (the results your strategy achieved). Without measuring both, you’ll never really know whether poor results were a product of the wrong strategy or just poor execution of that strategy.

If you’re pitching new business to a prospective client, outputs and outcomes are important as well, but with a bit of a twist. I’ve coached myriad presentation teams who’ve stated, “these are the three concepts we want to communicate during our presentation,” and they’ll proceed to list them (output). After hearing that, I’ll ask them to describe the three conclusions they’d like their prospective client to reach at the end of the presentation (outcome). Is there a difference you ask? Almost always.

The desired conclusions never quite match the key message points. In large part it’s because we all tend to develop key message points in terms of competence, but we think of prospect conclusions in terms that cover competence and relationship issues.  The prospect isn’t just interested in who’s better, but who will be better to work with. Understanding the distinction and re-framing your presentation in terms of both outputs and outcomes can mean the difference between winning and losing. An important distinction as you work to grow your business in 2011.

In Business Strategy and Management, Communication • Tagged , , , ,
  • Shayla

    Leo, thanks for posting this. Oftentimes when doing a presentation or planning a project these are aspects are not focused on. Instead what you think about is landing the client or finishing the project. I think that this short sights the overall goal of what it is you are trying to accomplish. If you don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t know where you’re going. My question is, how do you get others to focus on these aspects and deem them as important to the project or presentation?

  • Shayla

    Leo, thanks for posting this. Oftentimes when doing a presentation or planning a project these are aspects are not focused on. Instead what you think about is landing the client or finishing the project. I think that this short sights the overall goal of what it is you are trying to accomplish. If you don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t know where you’re going. My question is, how do you get others to focus on these aspects and deem them as important to the project or presentation?

  • http://twitter.com/leobottary leobottary

    Shayla, I usually ask them to put themselves in the shoes of the audience. If you can get the presenters to truly look at it from the audiences’ perspective, the light bulb usually goes on!

  • http://twitter.com/leobottary leobottary

    Shayla, I usually ask them to put themselves in the shoes of the audience. If you can get the presenters to truly look at it from the audiences’ perspective, the light bulb usually goes on!

  • http://www.managementhelp.org Carter McNamara

    Your post makes a point that I’ve long tried to make especially to for-profit businesses — that the concept of “outputs vs. outcomes”, that’s so popular in nonprofits, can be very useful in for-profits, too.

    Outputs are usually tangible measures of the activities WITHIN the organization, e.g, the number of students taught.

    Outcomes are the change or benefits that clients and customers accomplish as a result of the program or service, e.g., how many students passed their high-school tests.

    There’s lots of info about outcomes at http://www.managementhelp.org/evaluatn/outcomes.htm

  • http://www.managementhelp.org Carter McNamara

    Your post makes a point that I’ve long tried to make especially to for-profit businesses — that the concept of “outputs vs. outcomes”, that’s so popular in nonprofits, can be very useful in for-profits, too.

    Outputs are usually tangible measures of the activities WITHIN the organization, e.g, the number of students taught.

    Outcomes are the change or benefits that clients and customers accomplish as a result of the program or service, e.g., how many students passed their high-school tests.

    There’s lots of info about outcomes at http://www.managementhelp.org/evaluatn/outcomes.htm

  • http://www.managementhelp.org Carter McNamara

    Your post makes a point that I’ve long tried to make especially to for-profit businesses — that the concept of “outputs vs. outcomes”, that’s so popular in nonprofits, can be very useful in for-profits, too.

    Outputs are usually tangible measures of the activities WITHIN the organization, e.g, the number of students taught.

    Outcomes are the change or benefits that clients and customers accomplish as a result of the program or service, e.g., how many students passed their high-school tests.

    There’s lots of info about outcomes at http://www.managementhelp.org/evaluatn/outcomes.htm

  • http://www.metznik.com Don Metznik

    I see strategy and execution as key topics for 2011. So does the McKinsey Quarterly. One recent article discusses 10 tests for your strategy. I’ve summarized it here: http://www.metznik.com/blog/bid/34950/The-Ultimate-Business-Strategy-Question

  • http://www.metznik.com Don Metznik

    I see strategy and execution as key topics for 2011. So does the McKinsey Quarterly. One recent article discusses 10 tests for your strategy. I’ve summarized it here: http://www.metznik.com/blog/bid/34950/The-Ultimate-Business-Strategy-Question

  • http://twitter.com/leobottary leobottary

    Pardon the Santa Hat. I updated it on Twitter, but somehow it’s still appearing on my avatar. My output hasn’t achieve the desired outcome quite yet ;-) Don, thanks for the McKinsey piece and, Carter, I too believe there’s a great deal that for-profit organizations and not-for-profit entities can learn from one another. Excellent point!

  • http://twitter.com/leobottary leobottary

    Pardon the Santa Hat. I updated it on Twitter, but somehow it’s still appearing on my avatar. My output hasn’t achieve the desired outcome quite yet ;-) Don, thanks for the McKinsey piece and, Carter, I too believe there’s a great deal that for-profit organizations and not-for-profit entities can learn from one another. Excellent point!