As you consider the things you measure in your business, it is
helpful to step back and ask,
“Why am I measuring this?”
Is it:
1. To get better & more efficient?
2. To get people off your back?
What are you trying to do?
Of course you need to do some of both, but it’s really helpful to be clear about which one you are doing at any point in time.
For example, I have made the mistake of simply taking all of the internal success measures for my function, putting them on charts, and giving them to my peers and management. This, as it turns out, is a bad idea!
Be Relevant
No one really cares about what you do. See also Be More Relevant. And no one ever really wants to see the guts of what you measure to do it better over time.
By all means, measure away when it comes to improving your operational effectiveness and efficiency, just don’t torture everyone else with the details. Even if it’s really impressive, and you’ve done remarkable things, they won’t really understand it anyway.
It’s about communicating
Understanding why those measures matter is part of your expertise. Keep those charts inside your function with the people who know what it all means.
When it comes to reporting measures outside your function, find a way to measure and report on things that are important to your stakeholders. Remember, when you are talking outside your function…
It is not about improving operations, it is about communicating.
How to impress people
Outside of your organization, your goal is that people be favorably impressed with your results. That allows you to defend your honor and your budget.
So you need to come up with a new set of measures, or at least a new set of reports for your stakeholders. These reports will portray your results in a way that relate to things the already care about, in terms they already understand.
Their Measures, Their Vocabulary
If you are in marketing don’t deliver graphs about impressions, reach, or cost per lead. Find out what the hot buttons are and report on those.
Business relevant measure: 50% more sales people report we have moved to the top competitive position when they walk into an account.
The fact that you delivered this through PR and SEO only matters to you.
If you are in IT don’t show charts about network availability, or data center upgrades.
Business relevant measure: Talk about the fact that you were able to decrease days sales outstanding (DSO) by providing online payment capability.
The fact that you did this by creating new applications and infrastructure improvements is secondary.
Measures people care about
Here is the way to establish your set of measures that the business will care about
Interview your business stakeholders about what they believe drives the business and what the most important business initiatives are.
Listen for 2 things. 1. What the list is, AND 2. the words they use to describe the things on the list. This is your secret weapon.
(This is really magic… Do this, it works.)
Now when you create the dashboard or scorecard to communicate your results outside your function, use only THEIR words to create the labels for the measures.
That way when they see what you are measuring, they see a list of highly relevant things they already understand and care about.
If you report your team’s performance and success based on those things, you win.
Get it on one page
You can still have your whole binder full of backup details, that you use to actually run your operation, but when it comes to communicating the value of what your operation delivers to the business, make sure you fit it on one page.
That way, you give a concise, positive impression that you are delivering on the things the business cares most about, and because it is on one page, they will be willing to take it in, and you’ll get the recognition you deserve.
