| It's been said, "What gets measured gets done." Taken | | | | make decisions. Best practice measure reports include |
| at face value, the statement means that if you want | | | | the following information on one page per measure: |
| something done, then simply measure it. Anyone who | | | | * Objective |
| has tried to implement a balanced scorecard knows | | | | * Chart of the measure's progress over time |
| that just because you measure something doesn't | | | | * Arrow on the chart indicating which way is good |
| mean it's automatically going to change. There are a | | | | * Target line on the chart |
| number of caveats and prerequisites to the well-worn | | | | * Status indicator (Color coding in red/yellow/green, |
| platitude. The following are a few ways to make | | | | smiley faces, etc.) |
| measures work. | | | | * Measure owner |
| Align measures and objectives | | | | * Data source |
| Most measures by themselves are meaningless. A | | | | * Frequency of measurement |
| measure is only a proxy for what you actually want to | | | | * A brief explanation of what is being measured and |
| happen - the objective. For example, when you | | | | its link to the objective |
| measure employee turnover, your end goal is not to | | | | * An interpretation of what the current status indicates |
| know how many people are leaving the company. | | | | is happening |
| You want to know how effective the company is at | | | | * The current status of initiatives underway or planned |
| retaining talent. Turnover is just one way to estimate | | | | to make progress |
| employee satisfaction. | | | | Great measure reports make it easy for people to |
| The alignment between objective and measure is a | | | | quickly understand what is going on. Instead of having |
| critical factor in the effectiveness of the measure. | | | | meetings that spend time explaining the measure and |
| Good alignment means that when the measure | | | | its status, focus meetings on making decisions about |
| moves in the direction you want, you are making | | | | what should be done to achieve the objective. |
| progress toward your objective. Just because | | | | Focus on action |
| employee turnover goes down doesn't explicitly mean | | | | A measure tells you whether an objective needs |
| that satisfaction has gone up; it just means employees | | | | attention and what its priority is. It will rarely tell you |
| aren't leaving at the same rate as they were before. It | | | | what action to take; it will only tell you that action |
| is important to know the relationship between your | | | | should be taken. Still, many teams get bogged down in |
| measure and your objective. | | | | the accuracy and derivation of the measure itself |
| When an objective and its measure are misaligned, | | | | instead of taking action with the information that they |
| one of two things happens. Either people will ignore it | | | | do have. |
| altogether because they see that there is no real | | | | Focus on the initiatives that will move the dial even if |
| connection, or you will end up with unintended | | | | you don't yet know exactly where the dial is located. |
| consequences because people go after a measure | | | | As better information becomes available, you can |
| that is unrelated to the objective. It is better to have a | | | | adjust your report to show what is truly happening. If |
| subjective measure that is aligned with its objective | | | | better information is too difficult to collect, decide what |
| than to have a concrete measure that doesn't really | | | | is good enough or get a new measure. A team that |
| tell you what you want to know. | | | | only talks about measures without taking action |
| Make reports meaningful | | | | toward objectives is a team that will quickly lose |
| A giant spreadsheet with rows of measures, although | | | | interest in measurement. |
| concise, does not impart as much information as | | | | It may be true that "What gets measured gets done." |
| detailed, visual measure reports. At the risk of using | | | | But only if you help it along will what gets done match |
| more paper, ink and time, provide people with an | | | | your objective. |
| interesting graphic that tells a story and helps them | | | | |