IREX's Guide to Organizational Performance Improvement

"Inclusive and genuinely participatory approaches ensure commitment from all stakeholders to the performance improvement process, build trust, and result in performance solutions that make sense for all involved."

A performance improvement approach is meant to build upon and enhance the organisational strengthening work that the international non-governmental organisation (NGO) IREX does across its programmes with media organisations, civil society organisations, higher education institutions, and youth serving organisations. IREX's Guide to Organizational Performance Improvement describes how to facilitate a genuinely participatory, inclusive, and partner-driven process that goes beyond traditional capacity development, with its focus on developing narrowly defined skills. Performance improvement identifies specific performance outcomes and seeks to improve organisations' ability to achieve those outcomes, which may necessitate examining the local political economy, assessing relationships with key stakeholders, and/or improving their ability to adapt.

This document describes the performance improvement process and IREX's principles that underlie performance improvement. Because inclusion is one of those principle, this guide offers tips on how to mainstream gender considerations and youth-friendly approaches throughout the organisational performance improvement process. It offers guidance on the performance improvement process itself, starting with identifying performance outcomes, conducting performance gap assessments and analyses, developing and implementing performance improvement solutions, and continuing to evaluate organisational performance. One section outlines a participatory reflection process through which partners: identify the key attributes and systems needed to achieve their stated outcome(s); analyse their organisation's current state of performance at the performer, process, organisational, and systems levels; and identify a set of performance solutions to test, adapt, and iterate.

IREX stresses that performance improvement process is only as effective as the process, tools, and learning fit the needs of the partner organisation, its culture, values, and context. Cyclical by design, performance improvement is inherently a learning-driven process. IREX suggests plugging into partner organisations' existing networks before engaging in a performance improvement partnership, sourcing performance improvement support locally where possible. Performance improvement can be a low-resource process or as extensive and resource-intensive as desired. When working with partner organisations, it is more important to instill the outcome-based and learning-oriented process for organisational strengthening.

Annex A is Mozambique Media Strengthening Program's Performance Coaching Matrix; it includes a Community Radio Performance Matrix Checklist.

Annex B is the Partnerships With Youth Positive Youth Development [PYD] Coaching Tool, which is meant to inform partner organisations' capacity building processes and activities specifically around their capacity to serve and engage youth. IREX staff and partners are encouraged to make the assessment process as highly participatory as possible, and involve as many partner organisation staff and stakeholders, particularly youth, as possible to gain insights into organisational performance from multiple perspectives and to build trust and buy-in. This coaching tool consists of a scoring matrix followed by a rubric that describes ratings for the criteria scored.