Build perspective

In this perspective we ask ‘to achieve our vision, what do we need to build internally?’ In other words, to meet the requirements and needs of our funders and members, what systems, resources and skills do we need our peer program to be able to access? Any peer organisation would agree that having the right people facilitating peer groups is essential. Also important is the way in which learnings within the peer program are shared and retained within the team. To encourage this, organizers may like to contemplate answers to the following:

• What nature of program ‘content’, including discussion topics are in place?
• How are these developed and kept up to date?
• Do you have a secure database for recording members’ attendances/personal information?
• Does your team have access to the right IT for their roles?
• How do you ensure your team is presented relevant/useful training opportunities
• Do these benefit members and/or funders

Does the peer organisation have an effective member database in which attendances and other important information is securely kept? Does the peer program team have access to the right IT to enable them to perform their roles effectively? What training is in place, or provided, to the team and how do we ensure this is relevant, useful and its benefits valued by the members and/or funders?

During this perspective, we think about the people, systems and resources we should build (or invest in), and ways to go about making this investment. Our key focus shifts from the external outcomes from our work, to questions about the internal processes, systems and the people that enable those outcomes. Having satisfied members depends upon having the right team performing their roles effectively. This team relies on having adequate systems in place to support their roles, such as incident reporting mechanisms, or a referral process of member concerns to senior staff/management for follow up. Appropriate IT and other resources, including accessible rooms and a user-friendly booking system is needed for success. Each peer program will have differing levels of importance placed on the various aspects of this ‘build’ perspective. For some, the focus will be on the team members themselves, while for others, such as an online group, may focus more energy on ensuring the right IT resources and web access is in place.

In addition to the more obvious objectives towards supporting team members, we must also factor in how your program’s physical and intellectual property assets and utilised and managed. When it comes to your peer program, do you want to share your knowledge and expertise, or keep it secured internally? Do you have mechanisms to enable the adequate and successful sharing of your knowledge if this is your aim?

While we all want to focus on the delivery of the best peer programs possible, we need to also reflect on the importance of these underlying systems and established processes. Particularly when peer programs have been built within a community, user-led, volunteer group, the focus is unlikely to be on systems and business processes in the initial excitement of group delivery. The passion to support others and share experiences, learn from our peers and build our shared capacity can feel somewhat dampened by the cold reality of systems, policies and procedures. However, without underlying processes and resources, the eagerness of early innovators can only carry a program successfully in the short term and also places the program at risk of leading to negative or unintended consequences of members.

During any sort of evidence gathering process, it is important to ensure that we leave ourselves open to discovering negative or unintended results from our peer programs. Our collection of information needs to be open to things that we do not anticipate in order to fully grasp the impact of our peer programs. Whether they be positive or negative consequences, being aware of them will enable us to adjust our direction with greater accuracy due to our knowledge of them.

The build perspective asks us to navigate our journey with an eye not only on current funding requirements, and keeping your members satisfied, but also on the internal processes that are most important in ensuring these external stakeholders’ needs can be met. For example, some objectives may include:

Peer programs are distinctive and have been designed to meet unique needs. Therefore, a focus on build objectives will help your organisation to know where you are in terms of internal processes, systems and resources important to your program. As for the previous funder and member perspectives, the next BSC step is to take each of the factors we consider important and expressed them as objectives. Some options are presented in the table below, along with the indicators for their measurement, any relevant targets as well as any initiative that may be required.

You will need an individualized compass, which remains relevant. This will provide you the ability to see change in your peer organisation’s journey, and performance, as time moves forward. The evidence you collect relating to the build perspective will tell you about how your development of required internal resources, and likely their management, is progressing over time. A focus on systems, processes and resources can feel less important than a focus on ILC outcomes and member satisfaction. But remember, it is likely that investment and focus within the build perspective will lead to a lagged performance improvement in the Funder and Member perspectives. Building the mechanisms important for successful, consistent, equitable and efficient delivery of your peer program may feel less ‘exciting’, but their importance cannot be underestimated. This is particularly true for organisations managing federal government funds (eg ILC) and working with vulnerable people in organisations built on the passion and commitment of peers. The magic will be developing ways to keep the energy, focus and deep knowledge of those with lived experience at the fore of peer program development whilst also ensuring a professional delivery that meets the needs of the NDIA and members. The BSC enables you to gather evidence that captures all aspects of these (sometimes conflicting) perspectives and using that evidence to make the needed adjustments to your course.