How we work
A collaborative, flexible approach tailored to your organisation’s context and needs
Our philosophy
The best impact management solutions come from collaboration, not prescription. We work alongside you as thought partners. Our expertise meets your knowledge of your situation, your stakeholders and your mission. Our approach is practical and proportionate. We help you build systems that work for your organisation. Not generic solutions that burden your team.
Our engagement process
1. Impact maturity discovery
Every engagement starts by understanding how impact lives in your organisation
What we do in this step
- An inventory of your rituals, rhythms and routines
- Who needs what information about impact, and when
- A look at the frameworks, data and reports you already have
- Agreeing on the products and next steps
2. Co-design & planning
Together, we design an approach that fits your context
What we do in this step
- Participatory workshops with your team
- Framework selection or adaptation
- Indicator and metric identification
- Data collection strategy development
3. Implementation support
We support you in putting plans into action
What we do in this step
- Hands-on guidance as you put it in place
- Tool and template development
- Team training and capacity building
- Troubleshooting and adaptation
4. Review & iteration
We help you learn, adapt, and improve over time
What we do in this step
- Progress reviews and learning sessions
- System refinement based on experience
- Ongoing advisory support as needed
- Knowledge transfer and sustainability planning
Three workstreams
Impact management runs along three workstreams. They don’t follow each other in order; they run side by side.
Make sense
- Monitoring
- Evaluating
- Learning
Act
- Discovering
- Leading
- Improving
Share
- Engaging
- Communicating
- Being accountable
Making sense is the core: giving meaning to figures, lessons and stories together.
What you can expect
Collaboration, not consultation
We work with you, not just for you. Your team’s insights and context expertise are central to everything we do.
Practical & actionable
Every recommendation is grounded in feasibility. We focus on solutions you can actually put in place with your resources.
Transparent communication
Clear timelines, honest trade-offs, and regular updates. No jargon, no surprises.
Capacity building
We aim to make ourselves redundant by building your team’s skills and confidence.
Flexible engagement
From one-off workshops to ongoing advisory relationships, we adapt our involvement to your needs and budget.
Learning mindset
We’re curious and humble. When we don’t know something, we say so, and we learn together.
What we hold ourselves to, such as the CARE Principles and do no harm, and where we are still searching: See our principles
Build with proven frameworks, and progressive ideas
Our expertise covers all impact management standards, methods and assessment tools. It also covers bold, challenging work from progressive thinkers and academics at the edges of their field.
We also build the technology, from Power BI and Microsoft Fabric to apps, AI and ontologies. To the technology
Fabrik is our own platform for impact work, now in alpha. About Fabrik
Maktoob is the shared vocabulary under Narrate and Fabrik: concepts, relations and references. About Maktoob
Integrated business functions
- Stakeholder engagement
- Governance
- Sales
- Business development
- Strategy execution
- Planning and control
- Finance
- Operations
- Marketing
- People & culture
- Legal, risk, and compliance
- Health & safety
- Well-being
- Product development
- Service delivery
- Supply chain
- Community outreach
- Fundraising
Intimate domain specific experience
- Construction: BREEAM & LEED
- Hospitality & leisure: Green Key
- Fashion: producer responsibility & product passport
- Food & ingredients: food LCA and World Food LCA Database (with contributions)
- Culture & heritage: Balanced Value Impact model (BVI)
Knowledge contributions
- Industry thought leadership and speaking
- Open-source impact measurement tools
- Ecochain Academy contributions
Linked expertise
- Latest trends: diversity & inclusion, circular economy, regenerative, systems thinking
- Emerging topics: purpose-driven, Indigenous wisdom, steward ownership, commons
- Progressive & fringe: pluriversal politics, spiral dynamics, integral theory, trauma-informed
Supported by conscious design and tested practices
Our solutions draw from many disciplines. Technical rigour meets creative expression, and systems thinking meets human-centred design. Strategic activism meets step-by-step delivery.
Social design
Community-centred approaches that prioritise participation, equity, and co-creation with stakeholders.
Systems architecture
Thinking about the whole system. It maps connections, feedback loops and the points where a small change moves a lot.
Iterative delivery
Working in short cycles with regular reflection, so the approach keeps learning and adapting.
Service design
User experience and journey mapping that ensures touchpoints are meaningful and accessible.
Continuous improvement
Regular review and refinement that keep solutions evolving and robust.
Transmedia storytelling
Multi-platform narrative strategies that engage audiences across diverse channels and formats.
Performing arts
Creative expression and embodiment that brings abstract concepts to life through experience.
Public lobby & activism
Strategic advocacy and systemic change work that addresses root causes and shifts power dynamics.
Where impact management connects
Impact management does not stand apart from other work. It fits into fields you already know. That is where you choose what to build, start or stop.
Transition management
Working on a big change in a system, such as energy, food or care. It takes years and many parties.
Where it connects
Impact management shows whether the steps go the right way. So you can adjust along the way.
Futureproofing
Preparing your organisation for what is coming, with scenarios and signals of change.
Where it connects
Impact management adds what the future means for the people it is about. Not only for your organisation.
Service design
Designing a service from the people who use it, with every point of contact.
Where it connects
You do not only measure whether people are satisfied. You also measure what the service changes in their lives.
We have worked with this
Product development
Coming up with a product, testing it and improving it in short steps.
Where it connects
Impact becomes a requirement next to price and quality. You test it at every step, not only at the end.
We have worked with this
Programme and portfolio management
Steering projects together towards one goal, and choosing which projects to start or stop.
Where it connects
Impact management gives a shared measure. So you compare projects on what they achieve, not only on money and time.
Learning design
Designing learning: what people need to be able to do, and how they learn it best.
Where it connects
Impact management does not only measure whether people learned something. It also measures whether they act differently afterwards.
Adoption and change management
Helping people really start to use a new way of working.
Where it connects
Impact only comes when a change lasts. So you measure whether people still use the new way of working a year later.
We have worked with this
Environment, health and safety (EHS)
Making sure your work does no harm to people and nature. Often with rules and audits.
Where it connects
EHS is about preventing harm. Impact management looks at everything your work changes, and for whom.
Quality management
Agreements and checks so your work is equally good every time, for example with ISO 9001.
Where it connects
Impact management adds a question to your quality cycle: does it make people’s lives better?
Risk management and compliance
Knowing what can go wrong, and making sure you follow laws and rules.
Where it connects
Risks to people and nature also become risks to your organisation. With impact data you see them sooner.
Innovation management
Choosing, testing and scaling new ideas.
Where it connects
You do not only choose ideas on what they earn. You also choose on what they mean for people.
Procurement and supply chain management
Choosing who you buy from, and working with your suppliers.
Where it connects
A large part of your impact sits in your supply chain. Impact management makes it visible, so you can choose better.
Policy development
Making rules and plans for an organisation, a sector or a government.
Where it connects
Impact management shows beforehand who a plan affects, and afterwards what it did.
Planning and control
Planning, budgets and steering by figures, every quarter and every year.
Where it connects
Impact figures sit next to the financial figures. So you steer by both in the same cycle.
Let’s start a conversation
Every engagement begins with a no-obligation discussion to understand your needs and explore how we can help.
Not sure which form of collaboration fits? Try the collaboration explorer