WHERE
C3 is a pro-active partnership of 11 organisations spread across the West of England sub-region, partly funded by the European Union through the Equal programme. The partnership, formed in September 2004, is made up of statutory, voluntary, community, social enterprise and co-operative sector organisations.
This is a flexible tool that can be used as part of the self-assessment process
The partnership is piloting a range of new business support services and providing expert advice in improving the performance of social economy organisations. C3 aims to influence the range of support services delivered and how they are delivered in the future.
WHY
C3Quick Perform responds to a need to be as flexible as possible to meet the needs of the diverse range of clients of the C3 partnership.
Whilst developing the C3Perform tool (Link to C3Perform case study) through trials with a number of organisations, C3 advisers identified a need for a quicker self-assessment tool to be used in a number of situations. These included;
- Preparation for Full self assessment – Advisers needed a tool to use at Initial meetings with prospective clients to illustrate how the self-assessment process works and communicate the broad content/key messages involved in the model. They started with a 10 question tool but decided that this was too short and didn’t communicate the depth of the process sufficiently.
- Generic Training about the C3 approach to Performance Improvement – Similarly, advisers identified that a tool was needed to introduce the process and key principles behind it at training and awareness raising sessions about performance improvement and the C3 process.
- Alternative to C3Perform – Over the course of discussions about using C3Perform with a wide range of organisations we ascertained that not all organisations can dedicate time to a self-assessment programme involving staff and volunteers yet still wanted an introduction to the performance improvement process. We therefore developed C3Quick Perform to cater for this audience with the intention that they will see the benefits and implement a process of performance improvement in the longer term.
HOW
C3Quick Perform is a self-assessment workbook, which is used to quickly evaluate an organisation’s performance against the 9 criteria of the EFQM Excellence Model. It consists of 32 positive statements against which an organisations’ performance is scored on a scale of 1 – 10. There is also space where comments can be made. At the end there is space to summarise actions identified.
The tool’s emphasis on scoring over dialogue significantly affects the way that it is used:
- it means it is quick to complete,
- it means that it can be completed by an individual and the scores then aggregated to quantitatively analyse the results,
- it means that scores can be compared for different sections to fairly quickly diagnose where discussion/improvement is required.
C3Quick Perform can be completed by individuals or in small groups in a number of ways:
- It can be completed by an individual and returned (in this case it takes 15 –20 minutes)
- It can be completed with a client in a brief discussion with an adviser (in this case it can take 15 –30 minutes)
- It can be completed in a small group of 2 or 3 people facilitated by an adviser ( in this case it can take 20 minutes to an hour)
- It can be used as the format for a one to one interview of staff in situations where team relations are sensitive or conflictive (in this case it can take up to an hour)
The first of the nine criteria is featured below.
To see a complete copy of QUICK PERform, click here
Experiences
C3Quick Perform has been used in a number of ways:
1. Preparation for full self assessment - To introduce new/prospective clients to the concepts of the C3 approach to Performance Improvement including the process of self-assessment. The C3 advisers regularly use C3Quick Perform for this purpose at the very first meeting with a prospective client. It has also been used in workshops and generic training organised to promote performance improvement and the work of the C3 partnership.
2. Initial diagnosis of areas for improvement - To help decision makers diagnose which aspects of their activities and performance they need to discuss further. This quick diagnosis allows both client and adviser to identify the outcomes and plan how to approach a more detailed process of self-assessment. Once again C3 partners have regularly used Quick PERform in this way. It tends to lead to three approaches to conducting the self-assessment.
a) A group self-assessment session using C3Perform
b) A group self-assessment session using selected sections of C3Perform.
c) In an organisational planning day (often called a development day or away day in the UK) which incorporates the C3Perform workshop (see this good practice example for further information)
3. To include the perspectives of staff in larger organisations - To engage all staff and volunteers in the self-assessment process in larger organisations. Whereas C3Perform is best completed with a group of 2 –10 people, Quick PERform can engage more because it can be completed by individual staff members and the scores can be aggregated. This information can feed into the self-assessment session using C3Perform to enable multiple perspectives to be considered.
4. To resolve conflict and tension within work teams To help organisations to resolve conflictive team working issues and subsequently improve performance. C3Quick Perform has on one occasion been used as the basis for one to one interviews with staff in an organisation experiencing team conflict. Interviews allowed staff to speak freely and ensure they had an opportunity to make their comments known. (see another good practice example for further information)
5. Alternative to full self assessment - To conduct a quick self-assessment with organisations who do not wish to conduct a full self-assessment using C3Perform. For some clients, a meeting of two or three hours has been held to discuss the principles and characteristics of the C3 approach to performance improvement, conduct a quick assessment based on C3Perform and sketch out a simple action plan. Examples have included very small organisations with limited capacity and organisations using other quality systems who want to integrate some of the specific principles of the EFQM Excellence Model.
Drawbacks/limitations
Because it is a shorter and simplified process it does not go into as much detail as C3Perform does. It is a less rigorous self-assessment process and far less challenging in the content of its questions, which means it is less effective at introducing concepts of excellence espoused by the EFQM model. However for some organisations it is the right tool to use to start thinking about performance improvement. It is important that it should not be seen as an alternative to C3Perform in the long term. Each organisation using it should aim to move on to the more in depth and rigorous C3Perform tool in future years.
Learning Points
C3Quick Perform is regularly improved and updated through ‘capturing learning’ meetings held by the C3 advisers.
We are aware that there are limitations to having one tool for many purposes but the C3 Partnership decided to focus on using the tools we have flexibly and not to develop specific tools for different purposes.
We have sought to improve the language so that it does not deter small organisations for which performance measurement systems are much less developed or non-existent but have had to be careful not to compromise the effectiveness of the tool at introducing the concepts and processes of self assessment. As such, we do from time to time receive feedback that the language is difficult for many group members. We try to update this over time. We are currently developing the third version of C3Quick Perform.
Transferability
C3Quick Perform is a flexible tool that can be used in a number of circumstances. However, the C3 approach relies on adviser facilitation support to ensure that the workbook is used in a flexible way. We recommend that care is taken to ensure that the tool considers the specific needs of each organisation.
Contact Details
For further information, contact the C3 Partnership. See www.c3partnership.org