If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it

Does a ruler set your heart racing? Would a new protractor make you feel a little giddy? Did you go into maths lessons with a hop, skip and jump when you were at school? No? Well me neither, but that doesn’t mean to say that measurement isn’t one of the most important aspects of the highly sophisticated lives we live.

Lord Kelvin pointed out that “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”. Those carefully chosen words seem self-evident to me, yet measurement is not something we accept naturally. Much human communication is though words, expression, tone or voice, touch and emotion – all of which are difficult to measure.

But all great advances in human endeavours have come about through our ability to measure things. The list is very long: healthcare, safety, architecture, transport, energy efficiency, food quality, and much more.

A couple of weeks ago I went to see what might be the world’s oldest clock, which could date from the 14th century. It currently stands in the magnificent Salisbury Cathedral which is well worth a visit even if you have no interest in early time pieces. Of course in the 14th century, and many years afterwards, accurate timekeeping was not possible. If you don’t know what time it is, you cannot co-ordinate people or events around you or across town. Nor do you know how long things take to do (like cook a soft-boiled egg or travel to Leeds).

Whilst it is interesting to look back at advances in measurement and understand the benefits they have brought, it’s also interesting to think about the things we can’t or don’t measure. Of course that list is a great deal longer than the many things we already measure. From my limited experiments with measuring time spent on different activities (focused work, day dreaming, wandering around) or the number of data-driven decisions we make in a day (not many), I concluded that it is possible to usefully measure more than we currently do, even though it is difficult and somewhat unnatural.

Benjamin Franklin famously tried to measure thirteen things that he considered important: silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, etc. He tracked his adherence to these virtues at least until he was 79 when he wrote about them, and resolved to follow them longer as they had brought him so much happiness. None of them are concepts that lend themselves easily to measurement. Yet if Franklin hadn’t measured his adherence to them, he would probably have forgotten them long before his 21st birthday.

Bernard Shaw once said that all progress depends on the unreasonable man. I suggest he was wrong; progress belongs to the man with a mind to measure.

Why measuring matters

What we choose to measure makes a big difference to what we finally achieve. In business it is financial results: sales revenue, profitability or share price. In sport it is goals scored, distance run or races won. But these “lag indicators” can only measure the success of past actions, they cannot predict future success. Measuring the things that contribute to the final result is what keeps you on course, and guides future success.

Before I sprained my ankle I was training to run a half marathon. Running 13 or so miles seems like a very big challenge to me, even though it would be easy for many people. Although I cannot control the final outcome (success/failure/jubilation/humiliation) I can control the “lead indicators” along the way such as number of kilos lost, overall distance run in a week, number of times I train in a week or attending running club. None of these things on their own will guarantee me success in the half marathon, but week by week they will increase my chances – even with the occasional injury.

The sales pipeline is one business equivalent. The number of people who enquire about your product or service as a result of marketing campaigns might be the lead indicator. Or the number of visitors to your web site who view more than 4 pages. Or the number of sales conversations you have in a week. Or whatever. Taken in isolation none of these things guarantee healthy financial results, but they are excellent progress indicators.

So measuring the right things really does matter - whether you want to run a marathon, or enjoy financial success. The key is choosing the right measures, and being consistent in monitoring progress over time. And if some of your measures turn out to be not as instructive as you anticipated then change them; they are there as helpers on the journey and not the final destination.

An example of a powerful metric in use

Mortality ratios

Yesterday’s posting about performance metrics in the UK’s NHS system provoked much comment and discussion. The BBC’s Panorama investigated the discrepancies between certain hospitals’ own assessment of their performance, and independent assessments of their performance. In rather too many cases the discrepancies were significant.

One metric that caught my attention was discussed by Professor Brian Jarman of Imperial College, London. The hospital standardized mortality ratio compares the number of deaths expected and the number of in-patients at a hospital who actually die. Professor Jarman’s response to the interviewer’s questions was particularly instructive. When asked about the relevance of the metric he replied that it could indicate:

1. Data had been incorrectly entered
2. Something was wrong with the calculation
3. There is a problem with patient care

And he listed these possibilities in that order. In other words, the metric was an indicator that highlighted the need for further investigation. It was not an indicator that provided cut and dried proof of a problem. He went on to say that in one instance the ratio had highlighted a problem for ten years.

This is how performance metrics are designed to be used:

• An alert to a potential problem
• A need to investigate further
• Trends (upwards, downwards, consistently bad, consistently good) tell you more than any one single metric.

From my own experience I know that the NHS is not the only example of this mis-match between reported performance and actual performance. If there is any justice for tax payers this will run and run.

The Death of a Metric

When a new metric is born everyone is hopeful it will have a long and useful life. They want it to get lots of attention and be responsible for improvements in how the organisation operates. Everyone hopes that this metric will be popular and profitable, and be discussed in board meetings and within project teams.

Some metrics do grow up to be shining examples of how performance measurement can transform organisations. They are responsible for positive changes in the way things get done. But not all.

Some metrics die young and never reach their potential. Here are 4 good and bad reasons why are metrics killed off:

1. The metric encouraged the wrong behaviour. Despite everyone’s best intentions the metric encourages wheel spinning instead of real results. A poorly conceived metric can encourage short term profit at the expense of customer satisfaction, quality or the long term health of the organisation. Too much focus on financial metrics can has this effect. These metrics deserve to die.
2. The metric gets forgotten. This is frighteningly common. Every new initiative starts out bright eyed and bushy tailed, but then reality sets in. The data takes time to find, or inconsistencies are found. First one month is missed, then another. No one asks about the new metric. Soon everyone has forgotten about it. More good metrics get forgotten and die through lack of attention than people realise, losing enormous potential to improve. These are metrics in search of a champion.
3. The metric shows poor performance. This is the worst reason to kill off a metric, but one of the most common. Instead of treating the metric as a learning and improvement opportunity, it is treated as a PR disaster and quietly buried. Even though the metric was actually doing exactly what it was supposed to – alert management to an area that needed attention. If you have a metric in this state, consider whether it is a lead or lag indicator, and perhaps supplement it with some lead indicators.
4. The metric has improved performance and is no longer needed. Successful metrics can outgrow their usefulness. Once the new behaviours have become part of the culture, the metric is no longer serving any good purpose and needs to be replaced with something that will stretch people more. Metrics love to be killed off for this reason – they can die happy.

Metrics, like people, are complex little beasties who need care and attention to flourish. They need champions who are determined to get metrics working well, even if it means a little adjustment as they are growing up, just like people!

What would you wish for?

I was asked a really interesting question yesterday. “What might small businesses measure if time was no object and metrics could be produced instantaneously?”

An earlier posting Why performance measurement is worth the bother talked about how business metrics are not freebies. They take time and effort to determine, collect and analyse. But that effort pays back handsomely; both in the performance feedback they provide and the focus they put on particular aspects of a business. So it strikes me that the question is not dissimilar to
“What sort of business plan would small businesses like if it took no time to put it together?” The answers will be as varied as the businesses.

The effort required to think through a strategy, articulate it as a business plan, and then communicate it to those who need to know, is actually of more value as having the business plan. And so it is with metrics.

All plans and strategies are different. And the measures required to keep businesses on track are as varied as the plans. Measures are a reflection of strategy, not just what is available or easy to measure.

I suppose the hidden question within the question was “How do you encourage small businesses to use metrics to grow and improve quality?” I know from my own experience that many small businesses pay close attention to the financials, but not much more. Yet the number of large businesses that have sophisticated performance measurement systems suggests there is a high correlation between success and the use of metrics.

So what is stopping smaller businesses? Is it time as the questioner was suggesting? Is it lack of knowledge of what and how to measure? Or is it just plain lack of energy with everything else that has to be done? It’s an interesting question.

Having said all that I think there are some measures that many businesses would like, if they were not so time consuming to gather and I’ll post my thoughts shortly. In the meantime, what would you wish for if time and effort was no object?

Jump up and down metrics

Many businesses use metrics or KPIs to measure their performance. Metrics are vital if you want to understand your current performance levels, and where you need to improve. And most business leaders want to improve. They want their people to perform well, be happy in their work, and contribute great ideas to strengthen their companies.

So why are metrics considered boring? Why do we not jump up and down in excitement at the possibilities that metrics show us?

The answer is that metrics are often imposed rather than figured out together.

When metrics are worked out in the spirit of learning they become a tool to help improvement, a way to figure out what works and what doesn’t, and a way for everyone to get involved in improving whatever it is you are trying to improve.

Metrics that are figured out together have more chance of being the right metrics for the job: teams are great at plugging the gaps in others’ thinking, and creating lively debate that highlights the good or bad in any idea.

So if you want your metrics to get everyone jumping up and down with excitement at the possibility of it all, make your metrics inclusive and focused on learning.

Interested in consultancy on action-centred performance measurement? Or automating performance measures for your business? Send me an e-mail to see if we can help.

How focused are you?

Stop a moment to consider what you are working on. Look at your work and take a few minutes to consider:

1. Is what you are working on brining you closer to your goals?
2. Is it in your plan?
3. Are you confident that what you are doing is the right thing to be doing right now?
4. Are you able to measure how well you are doing with the task?

If the answer to any of those questions was “no” then there is a good chance you were not fully focused on whatever you were doing. If you answered “yes” to those questions, you would know, without any doubt, that what you are working on is important, urgent, and exciting.

Being super-motivated to achieve a goal requires a good plan, broken down into do-able tasks that move you closer and closer to what you want. Your plan enables you to figure out, in advance, what needs to be done and by when so you can always be ahead of your deadlines. By making your work measurable and quantifiable, you can monitor your progress and know whether you are on track.

Being super-focused on an activity is a wonderful thing, and when a whole team is focused to achieve something important work can be truly fulfilling. Metrics and data help you keep focused on what is important, and ensure you stay on track with your most important objectives.

What do high performance organisations do differently?

A white paper recently highlighted the importance of metrics in high performance organisations.

Research suggests that high performance organisations excel in managing their people, and are expert in using metrics to gauge the success of their initiatives. Three key differentiators were highlighted:

1. Metrics are used to assess the success of people-management initiatives
2. Metrics have a clear owner
3. Metrics are reported on frequently

In other words, high performance organisations have a data-centric approach to the success of their people. Before they even start out on a project they figure out how to measure success, and carefully determine which metrics will work best.

It’s hardly rocket science, but sometimes challenging to do well, and consistently. It’s also a short, sharp and on-the-money checklist for people and project management.

Winning metrics for problems

Monty Python’s sketch about a casualty department is a joy to behold. Of course, being Monty Python the casualties are the doctors, nurses and staff. Shutters repeatedly crush fingers, wheelchairs collapse and doors smash against faces. Good old comic slapstick with a laugh out loud twist.

I won’t pretend that this sketch was responsible for me thinking about problems, but it does underline the importance of addressing them. Toyota has gone on record as saying they prefer to see problems surfaced, rather than hidden. Which makes a great deal of sense: a problem is still a problem whether you acknowledge its existence or not. The only difference is that once it is out in the open you can start to think about it, talk to people about it, review it, and solve it. You can also measure how many problems you have, and how long it takes to solve them: big advantages.

Yet there is something in human nature that doesn’t like to admit problems. I will wait until my check-up with the dentist before acknowledging an odd sensation in one of my teeth, even though my teeth would be better for an earlier appointment. I am also guilty of lying awake at night thinking about work problems, instead of writing them down and addressing them properly.

Some of my innovation friends recommend writing down good ideas in a notebook so as not to lose them – a more than sensible idea that I believe counts Richard Branson amongst its supporters. I recommend writing down problems to help tackle them more effectively. This works well for individuals, teams, or divisions and the resulting metrics are well worth the effort. It certainly worked for Toyota. And might help some of those Monty Python patients too!

Happy Birthday Getting to Excellent

Getting to Excellent is celebrating its first birthday today. Blogs are a little different to people, celebrations tend to be low key, without cakes or candles, with much more emphasis on statistics, particularly if you are a blog who loves metrics.

Since 15th January 2009 Getting to Excellent has had:

• 3,540 visits
• 6,207 page views
• 163 blog posts (almost one every other day)

The most popular post was the first post - “All Things Measurable” which I guess is where people go to find out what the blog is all about. The second most popular post was “4 Immediate Benefits of Giving Up Caffeine” which would be a little disappointing, if the data mining post hadn’t come very close behind it.

In truth, I’ve often been surprised what people have been interested in. Nuclear fusion was a popular theme, as was tips for meeting deadlines. I suppose, like me, people are concerned with the big things in life (like how our children are going to heat their homes in winter) and the little things like how to get this report out by the end of the day - and whether drinking coffee makes as much of a difference as they say.

I don’t have a statistic for the number of comments on the blog, but there have been plenty. Debates about how to measure the performance of local government councillors, how much emphasis should be given to quantifiable measurement as well as general “like it” or “not sure” comments. Comments and debate bring a blog alive and I hope many more people will add their views and experiences to Getting to Excellent in 2010.

So, Getting to Excellent isn’t a baby any more. It is starting to become a little blog in its own right with its own personality and opinions. As it finds its feet in 2010 it is going to be interesting to see how it grows up.

1% inspiration looking for perspiration

With all the talk of metrics on Getting to Excellent over the last couple of days, it’s worth thinking about what lies behind the metrics. Because metrics only report back on inspired initiatives. Inspiration comes first, metrics second.

Thomas Edison of light bulb fame said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. (Is that why the light bulb is such a potent symbol for inspiration?) Metrics fit on the 99% side; the diligent work needed to improve performance until success is achieved. Edison pointed out that a genius is merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework.

Of course, inspiration may or may not be genius, which is why measurement and evaluation are so important. By assessing the success of initiatives we are able to understand better what works and what doesn’t. Edison reckoned to have constructed 3,000 different theories, with only two being successful. Yet it was the measurement and evaluation of the 2,998 theories that led him to the successful ones.

So whilst metrics may appear dry on the surface it does follow some truly inspirational stuff.

The world is full, full, full of information. Full, full, full of ideas. And in between all of that there are some sparks of inspiration. Which, no doubt, have been honed through years of careful observation of what works and what doesn’t.

So are you working on the 1% inspiration today, or the 99% perspiration of your homework? What made Edison a household name was the diligent 99% of careful experimentation, measurement and evaluation. Genius!

The Feynman Index

Someone asked me an interesting question about measurement:

“If what gets measured gets done, are we measuring the right things? What would happen if we started to measure different things?”

What indeed?

It nicely encapsulates the problem of measurement. For any given objective we can identify things to measure – many of which either have, or appear to have, a bearing on the problem. Sometime they move us closer to our objective, but sometimes not quickly enough.

Those averse to measurement love this, because they take any weaknesses as a reason not to measure. But that’s missing the point. Any valid measurement is better than no measurement, even if it’s imperfect. Why? Because without a measure you are left with subjective views. Subjective views will be different each time you look, and provide no clear benchmark for whether things are improving or not.

But the original question was interesting – what if we started to measure different things? What if we measured things that appear a little crazy?

I have been quite inspired by reading Richard Feynman: a brilliant chap who was constantly curious. What a marvellous quality – to be constantly curious. Most of us work hard at being blasé about how much we know – experts at this, experienced at that. Few of us want to expose how little we know. Yet here was an acknowledged genius who was quite prepared to admit what he didn’t know – and was always curious to find out more.

One of his life’s ambitions was to visit Tuva – a Russian republic in Siberia. As far as I can make out he had no better reason than that it sounded like a place that didn’t exist, was in an obscure location and therefore had a huge allure for him.

Here was a dedicated and brilliant physicist who devoted a great deal of his life to physics research and teaching. Yet he also had a number of seemingly unrelated obsessions. Did his obsession with Tuva teach him anything about physics? Did his love of playing the bongos help him to relate to his students better? I suggest they did.

Feynman, as a physicist, understood the importance of measurement. In physics measurement makes the difference between something being properly understood or not. As Feynman points out, something can appear to be correct when in fact it is not. It is the accuracy of measurement that exposes the error.

So The Feynman Index takes a sidelong, mischievous swipe at the problem/objective and asks “What Might I Measure Here?” What curve ball or seemingly off-centre measurement might teach me something I don’t already know? It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work – replace it with something that works better.

Sometimes the “Feynman Index” type measurements tells us more about the central problem than we might possibly guess from the outset… In addition, not instead of, the mainstream measurements.

Let's talk about Measurement

There is no other subject I have found to be as quick at generating comments as measurement.

Only yesterday I was discussing the 100-day habit idea when the conversation veered towards the complexity of the reasons for wanting to, for example, give up caffeine. The reasons why are, after all, so much more complex and interesting. Yes, I argued, but they obfuscate – one cannot see whether or not the habit is being formed without measuring the number of days one has abstained.

The measurement idea is simple, and reveals nothing or little of the complexity. But it is a highly effective way of defining success or failure. It seems, though, it is also disturbing. I don’t think people like bald measures that hold no insights into the why’s and wherefore’s.

Another example is Toastmasters – the club I attend to practice public speaking.

One of the first Toastmaster goals is to complete the first manual of 10 speeches. The quality of speeches that people give varies enormously – from the well prepared to the barely prepared, the intelligent to the flippant, the funny to the downright embarrassing. Yet despite all of this, there are very few people who are not better public speakers once they have finished those 10 speeches. As someone once wryly pointed out - he had never known anyone get worse.

So despite the differing quality and styles, the number of speeches gives an indication of competence. It is only an indication, of course, even if I did 100 speeches I don’t think I would ever get up to Obama’s standards, although it might be an interesting test.

I consider measurement to be one of the fundamentals in increasing performance. It’s not the only one, but it is a cornerstone.

As Lord Kelvin so succinctly pointed out - if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.

Data-centric decision making

There is much evidence that data-centric decisions are better than decisions based on intuition. From time to time in the comments section of this blog a little tussle breaks out over whether the head or heart should rule in business. Needless to say I come down on the side of head. However, I’ve not been presenting much evidence.

So I have decided to do my own study. For 30 work-days I will live a data-centric life. I will make as many of my decisions as possible will be based on as much data as I can reasonably gather.

As far as I am able, I will make each and every decision based on data. I will record what those decisions were, what data I used in my decision making process, and how good I felt the decisions turned out.

I fully expect to be slowed down by this way of working – I will by living the Toyota Way – at tortoise rather than hare speed. I will be fascinated to see whether I can actually manage a whole month, and whether I judge my decisions to be better or worse as a result.

Decisions I will include are:

1. What to buy (impulse purchases are out, considered data-centric decisions are in – this one is going to be tough!)
2. What to work on, and for how long (based on plans and past data)
3. Work-based decisions (allocating budget, changing suppliers, etc)
4. Project-based decisions (looking at past projects and outside studies)
5. Whether to accept a call or e-mail interruption in the middle of a task (I’m sure it’s more efficient to work straight through on a task, but don’t have any evidence on this)
6. When to take a break and for how long

I will keep a log and the data or evidence I use to support my decisions. I will also review regularly and post something once a week to let you know how it’s going.

No doubt I will have less data than I would like about some decisions, but maybe I will have too much. I won’t know until I try.

So for all those who have read The Year of Living Biblically – this is The Month of Living Data-Centrically. Not so catchy, but without the scratchy clothing and hopefully better for business…

The future's bright - but largely ignored

Britain is to have a new power station. It is claimed to be cleaner, more efficient, and, wait for it, will be coal fired. Yes, you heard – coal fired.

Like me, did you just check your calendar to see whether it really is 2009? That would be 2009 in the 21st century when we are all well aware of the

adverse effects of burning coal (greenhouse, gases, acid rain, the impact on the land, and much more besides). Plus we are doing all this in the full knowledge that coal is not a renewable energy source. It is the sort of decision that might have been excusable in the 60’s or 70’s, but surely not today.

So what’s the alternative?

There are

renewable energy sources - wind, solar, tidal and water. These are clean, with relatively little impact on the environment, but will never produce the majority of our power.

Then there are nuclear energy sources – nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. Fission is in use today, with the main disadvantage of the extraordinary long time that the waste remains radioactive.

Nuclear fusion is not yet in production, but it has so many advantages you wonder why. It is clean, produces no greenhouse gases, with either no or little radioactive waste, and is safe. And it can produce electricity in the amounts we need to support an increasingly power-hungry world.

Generating power using fusion would answer most of the problems we currently have with energy production. That’s a pretty big thing for future generations, but it is largely not debated and not sufficiently funded. The reason? We are still some years away from a working fusion power plant and it doesn’t have the easy-sell that renewables have.

More research is needed to harness the power that we know can be created through fusing atoms together. We have some of the best scientific brains in Europe working on it, but they are hampered by lack of political will and lack of funding. More money is spent on ringtones in the UK than is spent on developing fusion. That says something about our priorities.

So what’s the link to metrics, and performance management? You guessed it – targets: government and EU targets. We have an EU mandated target to achieve 15% of our energy from marine renawables by 2020. Laudable in itself, but it means that the long term and the very significant benefits of

fusion are left off the agenda. That can’t be right.

Is it another case of measuring what’s easy, and palatable, whilst omitting the more challenging measures? In this world of 30-second sound bites and our obsession with celebrities, we risk neglecting what’s really important. Are we avoiding the decisions, and targets, that will make this planet a habitable place for our children’s children?

6 Powerful reasons to write and read status reports

In these days of email, online systems and other e-enabled management devices, the status report has lost popularity. We drown in information, so why would we want more?

My management life started with status reports. My monthly report went to the Managing Director and set out the highs, lows, risks and opportunities of the accounts I managed. I was a star when my figures were good, and surprisingly reluctant to put pen to paper when the figures were bad.

It is refreshing to see that President Obama is also required to write a weekly status report http://www.whitehouse.gov/weekly_address. Because he is President of the United States it is actually a video – we didn’t have such new fangled things in my day so we typed our status reports.

Consider these 6 good reasons for writing, and reading, status reports – from both perspectives.

The power of the status report from the writer’s perspective:

1. Structured reflection. The writing of a status report requires an hour or so each week to pause and reflect on significant achievements. It gives time to think - if there have been no achievements, why not? How can achievements be reproduced? Reflection is one of the most valuable management tools around, and perhaps one of the most underutilised. Many recommend daily structured reflection, but weekly reflection is achievable even for the busiest manager.
Putting your thoughts in writing improves thinking, and provides a summary to look back on each week and month.

• What were the major accomplishments this week?
• What has not gone so well?
• What were the missed opportunities?
• What are the priorities for next week?

2. Sorting out the significant from the insignificant. Sorting out what is significant and what is not is the key differentiator between the successful and not-so-successful. The formality of the status report requires good thinking about what matters more and what matters less.

3. Connect metrics to activities. A status report has a quantifiable element that reports your key metrics against targets. The link between activities that improve key metrics, and those that do not should become apparent.


The power of the status report from the reader’s perspective:

1. Understand the other point of view. Getting a considered view of what went well or badly during the week gives a fair indication of where to direct resources. If half the week was spent battling with a problem that could be fixed, maybe something should be done about it. If someone plainly doesn’t know how to overcome a problem, perhaps some mentoring is needed.

2. Identify strengths and weaknesses. A previous post talked about the power of playing to strengths, and the importance of identifying strengths in teams. You are unlikely to get the full story from a status report, but it’s a start.

3. Reminder of key metrics. Although the metrics will undoubtedly be in systems and reports elsewhere, the status report ensures these measures are looked at least once a week. This last point alone will deliver the ROI on the both the reader and writer’s time spent on status reports.

Status reports are a bit like exercise – you feel good once you have done them, wonder why you don’t do them more often, and when done regularly will tone your management muscles to peak performance.

Oooh, that reminds me, it’s Friday tomorrow – I’d better start achieving something so I can put it in my report ….

Seven principles of performance management

Whatever you are trying to achieve – whether individually, as a team, or a business, there are seven basic principles which will get you there faster.

1. Success you can measure
2. Agreed plan
3. Binary milestones
4. Metrics for everything
5. Visible and visual progress
6. Regular reviews
7. Recognise achievements

Success you can measure
I’m not sure you can beat SMART goals. Specific, measureable, agreed, realistic and timed. This avoids SNAFU: Situation Normal – All Fouled Up. Seriously though, SMART goals are not new, just rarely found in the workplace. The reason you don’t see too many SMART goals around is that they are hard work. Woolly goals are much easier, and because you haven’t agreed them, they are also easy to forget when it all goes wrong. The initial up-front effort with a SMART goal sets the whole achievement thing off to a flying start.

I also like SMARTER goals – specific, measureable, agreed, realised, timed, ethical and recorded. Ethical should be a given, and recorded is a good reminder. Make the goal visible – and if it’s important, record it somewhere people will see it.

Agreed plan
A measureable and clearly defined outcome starts the planning process. Figure out the activities changes that need to be made en route to the goal. There are a bundle of complaints against planning: it takes time, stuff happens that you hadn’t thought of, work expands to fill the time allowed, etc. None of these are good enough reasons not to have a plan. The level of detail will be different according to circumstances, but you must have enough planning done to be able to see your way to achieving your goal.

Binary milestones
Milestones have either been met or they haven’t. ‘Nuff said. And if they haven’t been met, then they need to be. Either in parallel with other tasks or before you move on. Binary milestones rock!

Metrics for everything
In the short time I have been blogging on performance management and business intelligence the whole issue of metrics has caused a thunderstorm in an eggcup. “You can’t manage through measurement” has been the cry “management is about people.” Well, no and yes. You can and must manage through measurement, and yes, absolutely it’s all about people. And people need to know what standard is expected of them. How many, how much, what time, how long, how deep …

Lord Kelvin is famous, amongst other things, for saying that “if you can not measure it, you cannot improve it.” In business, as in science, that is true.

He also said “heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible” but, hey, you can’t be too hard on a guy that contributed so much to what so many of us understand so little of; except physics students, of course.

Visible & visual progress
Making progress visual and visible is a cornerstone of performance management. And the more creative and fun you can make it, the better. Measuring progress, in the true sense of measurement, and showing it graphically, has an almost magical effect.

Remember the Blue Peter appeals for stamps, scrap metal, woollies, and other stuff that kids could send in? Remember also the bright and massively visual ways they had of showing how they were doing? Colours, bells, lights, giant post boxes, it was all there in the studio. It worked then and it works now.

Regular reviews
You’ve created your goals, got your plan with binary milestones, are measuring everything in sight, and showing it visually. A couple more ingredients are needed to stop those charts flat-lining: reviews and determination.

Things don’t always go the way we want. So we have to adjust and re-think. Review regularly with analysis of the metrics and informed ideas to adjust the plan. Trying to adjust without analysis is called guessing. Determination is required to work through the analysis, figure out new solutions, and test ideas until those beautiful visual charts start perking up.

Recognise achievements
Working through problems, finding solutions, and making plans takes considerable effort, often for prolonged lengths of time. The metrics tell you how well you are doing, and they also tell you when its time to take the team out to dinner. Recognising achievements, celebrating successes is motivating and necessary to keep everyone on board.

Seven steps that will help you make a success at just about anything. None of them are original, all of them are tried and tested, and all of them work. Now the bad news – they all take effort: a lot of effort. That’s why success isn’t a given, and why riches don’t just tumble from the skies. The seven steps won’t guarantee riches either, but they will improve the odds.

Count what you can manage

Numbers improve creativity

As an avid reader, and a loyal follower of Mariella Frostup’s Book Show, I am fascinated with how authors produce their work.

What strikes me about authors’ working habits is how often numbers occur in answer to interviewer’s questions about how they produce their books. Writing is a creative process – yet authors appear to be methodical and systematic.

In his book ‘On Writing’, Stephen King says that he writes 10 pages a day without fail, even on holidays. I wonder whether my idea of a holiday is the same as Mr King's, but his disclosure is nonetheless impressive.

Here are some comments made by the Book Show guests about how they work:

“I can really focus and just get on with writing my 1,000 words. Then I get to spend the rest of the day playing with the babies…” Jenny Colgan (best selling chick-lit author, mother, and blogger extraordinaire)

“I always start the day by going into my office at about nine o’clock. This is where I work on my four books a year. When I’m writing a book, I write about 3,000 to 4,000 words a day; I don’t really have to think about what’s going to happen in the books: it just seems to come from my subconscious mind. I write for two to three hours and then I come out of the ‘trance’, as it were.” Alexander McCall Smith author of The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency

“My working day starts at about 2.30pm and continues on through to half past six or seven o’clock, when I stop because I’m knackered.” William Boyd – prize winning author and film writer

“I’ve got these files here and then I’ve got my marvellous patterned notebooks. I’m absolutely devoted to them. I must have about 200 by now, ‘cause I do about 20 for each subject.” Lady Antonia Fraser – historical biographer

J G Ballard, who wrote the cult novel ‘Crash’ was reported in The Times as saying:

“I try to write about 1,000 words a day in longhand and then edit it very carefully later before I type if out. I have been known to stop in the middle of a sentence sometimes when I've reached my limit. But self-discipline is enormously important; you can't rely on inspiration or a novel would take ten years.”

Performance management in action

This is Performance Management in action. The numbers – whether the hours they work, the number of words or pages they write, or the research notebooks filled – are part of the creative process.

Of course the numbers themselves don’t make the stories more gripping or their characters more life-like. They don’t compensate for poor grammar, or improve their spelling. But they do allow the authors to improve all of these things by the regular, systematic, and consistent application of their creative energies.

The numbers enable these authors to manage their creativity. They are conscious of when is the best time of day to write. They understand their own personal balance between targeting a number of words, and keeping up the quality of what they write. They set their own targets with words, pages and books –authors’ equivalent of a KPI.

Best selling lessons for business

All the authors I’ve quoted are best-selling authors. By literary and commercial standards they are successful. Their scorecards are filled with the number of words they write each day, the number of hours they work, how they edit, their research notebooks, and how they get started when faced with a blank sheet of paper. The book sales then follow.

In contrast, business people often start with the sales figures. “This year we are targeting sales of the XYZ product to be 1,000 units a month …” Business scorecards are filled with sales revenue and profit targets. Whilst these figures absolutely have their place, they are not the figures that business managers are actually able to manage. What we can manage is the efficiency with which we produce our products or services. We can decrease defects, or increase features. We can improve distribution or marketing communications, etc.

Metrics for creative types

The concept of applying “cold, hard numbers” to creative processes such as man management or writing isn’t intuitive. Metrics appear too stark, too simple and don’t convey the ambiguities of day to day business or the plot of a novel.

In reality they convey a great deal. The writer knows that a day that produced 1,000 words is moving them closer to their finished book – even if they eventually have to re-write every word.

Equally, successful managers think carefully about the key metrics in their business, and then ensure they are monitored and improved regularly. Because of course that’s the whole point. By creating targets and measuring the key parts of the process we are able to improve on what we do: improve the process, and the deliverables. Clever people, authors.

Chief Performance Officer

President-elect Barack Obama has announced that he will have a Chief Performance Officer on his team. Nancy Killefer from McKinsey & Co, a former assistant Treasury secretary, is charged with making the government more efficient, effective and transparent. Oh, and trimming the projected $1.2 trillion deficit.

The appointment is interesting. Killefer has specialised in strategies to improve organizational effectiveness for public sector organisations. Whilst she certainly has excellent financial credentials this is an acknowledgement that this is more than just a financial problem. It is one of efficiency, performance, and accountability.

It will be interesting to see what a management consultancy approach to this problem looks like. Will the real work needed to get accountability as well as accurate metrics be done? We all know that setting targets is one thing, but getting the behaviours right behind the targets is quite another. Measuring performance against the targets is equally challenging.

How Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are calculated, how cheat-proof, and how well accepted they are, will all make a difference to how well new initiatives work. But well designed KPIs can significantly lift performance and are well worth the effort.

There are real difficulties in getting accuracy and meaningfulness into figures and financials for the United States. It is a big job. There will be lots to learn from how she tackles it and the many successes this focus will generate.

I’m sure we will be seeing a lot more Chief Performance Officers before too long. The US government is not the only organisation going through its budgets line by line but still wanting to make sure it delivers on its promise to customers.

All things measurable

Does the world need another blog? Not exactly; but it’s got one anyway.

Welcome to Getting to Excellent!

Getting to Excellent will be thoughts, rants and ramblings about the world of performance management, business intelligence, key performance indicators, scorecards, dashboards, metrics, and all things measurable as well as a few things that won’t be measured.

I’m a Microsoft Certified Professional, a systems analyst and obsessive about how numbers help us to do better. I’m a Toastmaster, a yogini, and stubbornly dreadful at French. I’m also fortunate enough to have worked with and for some of the world’s most capable companies.

And for what it’s worth I passionately believe that performance does matter: both good and bad performance. I believe we all have a deep seated desire to do well in our chosen fields and that understanding how to do better is important. Important for individuals, teams, businesses, and public sector organisations.

So I’m going to write about it. Here. In Getting to Excellent. The world’s new blog. That it didn’t necessarily want. But got anyway.