Well done for reaching the last of our five steps! If you have done the tasks at the end of each of the preceding steps, then you have already invested wisely in yourself and are a huge step closer to being able to generate significant and far-reaching impacts from your research. You now have a much clearer idea of the impacts you want to achieve and why you want to achieve them. You’ve got a clear plan that can get you from where you are now, to the impacts you want to see in future. You’ve cut back on the things that have been cluttering, confusing and holding you back, to make more time for yourself, and more time to generate impact. And you’ve identified a network of people who can help you reach your goals.

 

During the last step, you identified one thing you could work on this month, which could take you closer to achieving impact. During this step, you will actually start work on do this. It is important that you actually do something tangible as part of this step. You’ve done a lot of thinking, discussing and planning so far, but little real action. Now is the time to put everything you have learned into action.

 

 

Put theory into practice

 

In the last step, you identified one thing you could work on this month. If it isn’t particularly tangible, then your first task is to find a way to make it more tangible. Is there a way you could involve others to do this with you, for example in a workshop setting with external partners? Is there some sort of physical artefact that you could produce, linked to the thing you’ve decided to work on, like a policy brief, a film or an educational resource?

 

Next, go back to your impact plan in Step 2, and think as deeply as you can about the activities you will do, how they link to your impact, how you can adapt your activities to the needs of different external partners, and the risks that might be associated with those activities. If you haven’t already, get some feedback from colleagues about what you are planning to do, to see if they can spot any flaws or limitations in your plan.

 

Next go to the people you reached out to in Step 4 – they should already be waiting for your message, if you set this up well when you contacted them. Although it might feel uncomfortable at first, your task is to ask them for help. Ask for something very specific, that you think they should in theory be able to give you. If you don’t ask, you will never know if they would have been happy to help you, and more often than not, people actually want to help.

 

Finally, just go out and do it – whatever the thing is that you decided to do, and make sure you do it within 4 weeks, so that you can maintain momentum.

 

 

Embrace failure to learn

 

There is one last thing you need to consider though. It probably feels great that you are actually out there, doing something tangible to generate impact. But how do you know that what you have done has actually affected change, and helped you get closer to your impact? In the impact plan in Step 2, there’s a column where you have to identify indicators or targets. Make sure that you design whatever it is that you do this month, so that there is some way of collecting information about whether or not it is working. If it didn’t work as well as you wanted, do something else next month. Those who succeed most in life are often those who are prepared to experience failure again and again, and it is for this very reason that they learn how to succeed.

 

It is important not to judge yourself against the number or quality of impacts you achieve, because impacts can take a long time to materialize, and an apparent lack of progress can be demotivating and cause you to stall or keep changing track needlessly. Rather judge yourself against your impact plan, and the activities you are doing to take you on your pathway to impact.

 

 

Focus on the small steps that take you closer to impact every day

 

Make it your goal to take small steps every day that you believe will contribute to your impact. At the heart of this course is a relational philosophy of impact, which focuses on building empathic, trusting and respectful relationships. Make a mental note of all the small things you did each day that were consistent with applying this philosophy, whether or not it is obvious how it helped you get closer to impact.

 

Focus on repeating value-orientated behaviors again and again, and trust that these will take you where you need to go. This doesn't mean you don't monitor and correct your course - but rather than focusing on whether you've reached the top of the mountain yet, celebrate that you took a few more steps that were in the right direction that day.

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Finally, if you have evidence that your activities are working, or even better, that you are actually achieving impacts, then shout about it! Celebrate and share your success with others who are on a similar journey to you, so they can be inspired and learn from you.

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I've already explained (in Step 2) how you can integrate monitoring into your impact plan using my impact planning template. If you want more detailed information on how to track, evaluate and evidence impacts, you can read Chapter 22 from the second edition of The Research Impact Handbook here.

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