Everywhere we turn today, we see, read or hear the phrase Return on Investment (ROI). Do a Google search on "Return On Investment" and more than 7,000,000 results appear, ranging from ROI on training1 to ROI on Needle and Syringe programs in Australia2. So why all the fuss about ROI? Simply put: expense control, cost reductions, revenue enhancement and productivity gains. Leaders need to know that their investment has value. Shareholders and investors are holding C-Level executives' feet to the fire about unnecessary spending. Those executives in turn are holding their direct reports' feet to the fire. No one is spared. Everyone must prove a positive return on the investment from the finance department to IT to procurement to meeting planners. The ROI for capital investments such as major technology purchases, outsourcing services and annual vendor contracts are computed and submitted for approval every day. Relatively speaking, they are a snap to compute. However, the ROI of a meeting has always been controversial. Certainly, the cost to produce the meeting is known. It's the "Was it worth it?" question that continues to lurk in	ROI Is Everywhere An Interview With a Client An Exciting New UNISON Training Feature Live Leader Boards A Mere Click Away On-site with UNISON Heard from Our Clients     Touch Screens, Kiosks and more!
	the minds of senior management and its surrogate for examining costs, the procurement executive. Meeting specialists traditionally used surveys pre and post meeting to measure the success of meetings in response to the "worth it" question. Survey questions typically ask about the quality of the presentations, the meeting venue, the food and other components of the meeting, such as external presenters. Frankly, these surveys are "smiley" sheets. Smiley Sheets Are Out; Measurable Results Are In Senior business executives want measurable results, not smiley sheets. The key phrase here is Measurable Results. For those meetings that have objectives (desired outcomes) which cannot be measured in "cold, hard cash," such as increased revenues, the meeting design and process are critical to identifying the data needed to measure the worth of the meeting. Flip charts, electronic whiteboards and automatic response systems (wireless handheld voting terminals) are tools that have been traditionally used at meetings to capture and record participants' input. ARS devices are excellent for "checking the pulse" of a group, determining the group's priorities, or getting an idea of a group's aggregate estimate of its annual sales target. However, for the type of extensive data capture that must be analyzed and measured to determine a meeting's ROI, these tools fall short. For example, data written on flip charts and whiteboards must be deciphered, re-recorded, then compared and combined for examination, post-meeting. In this 24/7 world, the longer it takes to process, interpret, compile into an electronic file, and analyze, its value to the organization diminishes as each day, week and month of compilation goes by. ARS results are instantaneous but the answers are pre-determined by the content developer who created the questions. One really cannot get into the nuances of the answers, nor can any other answers be recorded or tabulated. The point that I'm making here is that these traditional meeting aids cannot grab every person's thoughts, every person's innovative idea, every person's suggestion, or every person's objection, even if the entire meeting and its breakout sessions were audio-recorded. Aside from the time it would take to transcribe the entire meeting – anywhere from a week to a month, there is another far more compelling reason why audio-recording falls far short. It's known as "The Usual Suspects" Phenomenon. This refers to the dominant few who hog the microphones at every meeting in the general sessions, and the magic markers in the workshops and breakout sessions. Then the "I Don't Want to Ask a Dumb Question" Phenomenon sets in -- the rest of the participants become intimidated for the rest of the meeting are mute. UNISON – The Power to Record, Track and Compute Instantaneously UNISON the collaborative meeting experience™. has become the pre-eminent tool for instantaneous, comprehensive data capture. With UNISON, content developers have the freedom to design interactive sessions without the limitations posed by traditional meeting aids because interactivity and collaboration happens simultaneously throughout the meeting room. The data from these sessions is recorded and categorized for review instantaneously. Ideas from brainstorming and consensus-building sessions – whether in the general session or breakout sessions, are fully documented and instantly retrievable. All intellectual property (data and thinking) is captured, examined, prioritized and shared, during the meeting. "Hard" data such as revenue predictions and product sales estimates and test scores are recorded, computed and shared instantaneously. "Soft" data such as agreed-upon strategic goals, tactical action plans and individual commitments are recorded, categorized and shared, again instantaneously. A complete record of the entire meeting from general session to workshops to breakout sessions is at hand instantly! A CASE IN POINT The largest mutual insurance provider in the UK, Standard Life Assurance Group, undertook a complete strategic review of its services, market position and economic viability. As a result, a change program was implemented which substantially reduced operating costs, a reduction in staff and the development of new profitable business propositions. The firm's largest sales division, recently renamed and reorganized, wanted to hold a meeting of its staff. The meeting had three objectives: to layout the revamped strategy of the division, to bond its employees into a unit under the division's new brand name and to give its employees "a say" in the values, mission and challenges that faced the division. UNISON™ was used throughout a four-hour extremely intensive interactive session to capture the desired data: all questions, all comments, all thinking and the final choices for the division's values. UNISON also was used continuously throughout the day-long session to calculate and update team scores of competitions that were held during the interactive session and the physical competitions that made up the rest of the day's agenda. By using UNISON and its extensive capabilities (interactive, collaborative, computing, record keeping), Standard Life not only fully engaged its employees in the change program, it had at its disposal anytime during the meeting, the fully recorded meeting data. Not only were delegates' thoughts shared instantaneously throughout the interactive session, the complete data was posted at the company's website and used by managers to help shape plans for their employees, post event. For a more detailed description of the Standard Life meeting experience, please see the Standard Life case study . What's the Bottom Line? As shown in the Standard Life example and other case studies, UNISON can help answer the question, "Was the meeting worth it?" Bottom line, though, is that in order for UNISON to be instrumental in measuring a meeting's ROI, five things have to happen. The first is that prior to the meeting, its desired outcomes must be defined. In other words, what exactly do you want the participants to do, to understand, to learn or to commit to. The second is meeting input – data, thinking, sales revenue projections, commitments, scores - have to be recorded fully. The third is that the defined outcomes and the meeting input have to be tracked and compared. A team of content developers must be dedicated and held responsible for this during the meeting. If the participants are not ‘getting it,' they can adjust the design on the spot. Imagine doing this in a non-UNISON meeting. It can be done, but it can take quite a while to do it. With UNISON, it happens within seconds and minutes. The fourth is the next to most critical, and is the least or never done, in my experience. It's follow-up and tracking the recorded data, post meeting. Imagine you've had your annual strategic update meeting with your top sales force. And imagine that you've gotten a commitment from each one of them to estimate their next year's sales. UNISON aggregates all the totals by group, by regional sales team and by individual. Post meeting, these data are tracked and compared to the actual figures. No matter what the outcome, there would be proof to analyze the meeting's worth. The fifth is the most critical. It's having the courage to design a highly collaborative meeting in which the participants share in the outcome of the meeting. I have heard senior executives say very bluntly during planning sessions, "I don't want my people having a say in the meeting. I want to tell them what they have to do and that's it." It takes a very brave meeting process designer and a very forward-thinking senior executive who not only spouts the notion of teamwork and collaboration but also actually lives it to hold a meeting that has UNISON in it. My experience has been that once senior executives see and experience the power of UNISON, they never want to have a meeting without it. What drives these senior executives to want to use UNISON? They see results. Larry Cerri, Founder and President, UNISON LLC
	1. For more information on how ROI is used to measure the investment on training programs, see http://www.learnativity.com/roi-learning.html 2. For more information on how ROI is used in measuring the effectiveness of needle and syringe programs in Australia, see http://www.health.gov.au/pubhlth/publicat/document/metadata/roireport.htm.