Clarity of Purpose

Anna Wintour: “People respond well to people who are sure of what they want.”

We somehow think that a clear purpose will come to us from above, as the Ten Commandments were given to Moses, or as Buddha achieved enlightenment sitting under the Bodhi  tree.  Some people are lucky enough to know early on their where their talents and interests lie.  Anna Wintour reckoned she was just 15 when her career in fashion was fixed[1].    For the rest of us, being clear about our purpose is hard work. 

There is no escaping the fact that a clear vision is essential to the success of any organisation, and essential to the success of those within the organisation.  

If being clear about your purpose was easy, though, everyone would be highly focused on their specific goals.  Sadly, that’s not the case for one very simple reason: being clear about your purpose means making a choice.  By choosing one path you close off others.  For many people that is very difficult; the grass always looks greener someplace else, particularly when things don’t turn out as you planned.  So our attention wanders to something we think might be more profitable, more interesting, or just plain different from the problems we are facing.  However, that is exactly why clarity of purpose is so powerful; choosing forces you to focus your time, resources, and energy on one thing.  And doing one thing vastly improve your chances of success.  The old saying that the hunter who cases two rabbits catches neither one is as true in business as it is in the woods.  

When we are sure we are doing the right thing, we can sink ourselves fully into the activity.  Free from distractions, we become absorbed in our work.  Disturbances that would normally cause annoyance are ignored as we focus on the job.   Concentration and effectiveness are at their highest when we have absolute clarity about what we are doing and why we are doing it.

---

[1] When Anna Wintour was just 21 years old she told her co-workers that she wanted to be Editor of Vogue.  She achieved her ambition in 1988 and 24 years later she is still Editor-in-Chief of American Vogue.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Wintour.

Eat and Sleep Routines

“You wouldn’t forget to eat or sleep, would you?”  I can still remember the piercing gaze staring at me across the table.  “So why did you forget to write your monthly report?”  The message was crystal clear, if not completely logical. 

My boss was telling me in no uncertain terms to make my monthly report as habitual as eating and sleeping; if I wanted to carry on working for her, of course.

It’s a lesson I have never forgotten, even though it was many years ago.  When something is as habitual as eating and sleeping, it doesn’t get forgotten.  Ever.  I know other people who also treat their monthly reports with the same reverence; they don’t forget either.  You don’t need to add it to your “to do” list, you don’t need to worry about it, you just do it.  As easily as you eat and sleep. 

The difficulty, of course, is that some pretty powerful mechanisms were designed into us to make sure we don’t forget to eat or sleep.  The same cannot be said of monthly reports. 

But if you can make something into an “eat and sleep” routine you have found a pretty powerful way of increasing your effectiveness. 

Benjamin Franklin recognised the benefits of cultivating positive habits.  He called them his 13 virtues and he spent many years of his life trying to live by them.  He wrote about them in his autobiography and it is an early glimpse we have of how difficult it is to change behaviour. 

There is a lot of guff out there on the magical World Wide Web about how it takes 30 days to form a habit.  I can muster quite a lot of evidence to say this is codswallop.  It takes much longer, particularly if the habits are difficult.  So we need reminders and rewards.  We need persistence and perseverance.  And we need to keep our new habit visible, so we don’t forget what we are trying to do.  Even after many months or years, we still have to be vigilant in not letting it slip.  Benjamin Franklin used a little paper notebook for most of his life to try to make his 13 virtues as natural as eating or sleeping. 

If all this sounds like a lot of effort, I’m afraid it is.  But the payoff is enormous.  Good exercise habits are not easy to cultivate, but they keep us out of hospital; as do good eating habits.  Good working habits are every bit as difficult, but lead to a more productive and effective career.  It may take more effort, but the rewards are there for the taking. 

So what sorts of habits improve effectiveness?  Strangely, the monthly report is one of them, or at least it has the same effect.  Reviewing and evaluating our work on a regular basis leads to better decision making.  It’s not rocket science, but also not easy to do.  It is, however, very effective.  As is good planning; equally difficult to do on a regular basis, but invaluable if you want to be effective and successful.

My old boss is now a millionaire several times over and looks younger now than when I was working for her.  So her advice is perhaps worth listening to. She also had the uncanny knack of putting the fear of God into the people who worked for her, but that’s a completely different story …

What’s the Big Idea?

We are all working for something; whether it’s to pay for our children’s education, buy a house near the sea, or build a worthwhile business.  Everyone’s big ideas are different, but we all have them. 

Yet although these big ideas are important, often we don’t give them much attention.   It’s rare for them to be written down, or looked at from month to month.   Often they stay in the back of our minds as “someday-maybe” ideas; perhaps because we’re not sure we can achieve them we don’t dare hope.

Yet one of the biggest differences between successful people and others is that high achievers write down their goals, and make plans to progress them. 

Jim Collins called them BHAGs – Big Hairy Audacious Goals.  Stephen Covey referred to it as “Begin with the End in Mind”.  Many writers and successful people have, over many years, stressed the importance of knowing what you want to achieve.  So figuring out what is most important to you is a good first step in making them happen.  Then you need to commit them to paper or hard disk.

Of course there are many different types of people.  Whilst some people will recognise this reluctance to commit big, important ideas to paper, other people have lots of big ideas and write them down all the time.  They have so many ideas and dreams and plans, they can barely keep track of them all.  Their list of “Big Things To Do” is long, and gets longer by the day.

The Chinese wryly point out that “The man who chases two rabbits, catches none”.    So whilst it’s great to be creative and generate ideas, it’s vital not to get lost amongst the noise of what could, should or might be done.  Decide what's most important, even if it takes some thinking, reworking and crossings out. 

This list may have about half a dozen items on it, maybe a few more or perhaps a couple less - certainly no more than nine.  Why?  Because we can only focus on a couple of things at a time, so the more that goes onto the list, the less likely it is you will achieve them.  It’s better to have fewer, big ideas and get them done, than to have a shopping list as long as your elbow that gets ignored.

Decide what you want

Deciding what we want is difficult, for the simple reason that there are so many things to want. And if we want too many different things, we end up with nothing. Which is why so often we end up break New Year Resolutions, or other fine goals we set ourselves. It’s not that we don’t want whatever it is (being thin/rich/a good dancer) that we resolve to achieve, it’s just that we don’t want to give up other things that we want even more.

So setting goals and objectives is mostly about making difficult choices.

But if we are clear about what we want, and we want it badly enough, very often we become unstoppable – whatever the goal.

H L Hunt, the oil tycoon, apparently said:

“Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities, and go to work”.

It’s not only good advice, but succinctly put. And I don’t think its overstating it to say that it’s the secret (if indeed there is a secret) to success.

Whenever I have wanted something badly enough, I have figured out a way to get it. (Right now I just have to figure out how to want a 2.5 hr half marathon badly enough to train and starve myself for it ….)

Being clear about your goals is central to achieving excellence. But it’s also one of the most challenging aspects. Which is perhaps why there are many ballet dancers, but only one Darcy Bussell, many runners but only one Paula Radcliffe, many business people but only one Bill Gates, many investors, but only one Warren Buffett …. Yes, of course, all these people have talent. But all of them challenged their focus, their time, their energies on achieving their single most important goal.

One Year, One Run

Setting a goal a full year ahead is always satisfying. There’s plenty of time to do what needs to be done, and a nice warm feeling of having something to aim for. But as the weeks and months tick by, the reality of doing the work sets in: quickly followed by growing panic as the deadline looms.

One very short year ago I set myself the challenge of running a half marathon. The Reading Half Marathon, to be precise, which I ran last Sunday. At least I ran most of it, my feet and ankles complained bitterly towards the end which slowed me to a walking pace. I took 7 minutes off my Henley Half Marathon time, and wasn’t last! Yeah!!! And I achieved my goal - even though I wasn’t nearly as well prepared as I could have been, or as I would have liked.

A year ago I struggled to run one mile, let along 13. I was very nervous of joining my local 3 mile Saturday morning Park Run. So although I don’t yet have the Kenyan runners quaking in their running shoes, I’ve made a lot of progress.

As always with projects, be they running, software or other changes, things never turn out as you expect. I thought if I took up running my excess weight would drop off me automatically, whatever I ate. I have to tell you that ain’t so. I thought I’d have two running buddies to keep me company, for all sorts of reasons that didn’t work out either (although one volunteered as a marshal on race day and sent me off and welcomed me back with a bright, encouraging smile). I thought running would be easy. It isn’t.

So it’s been a year of learning. Learning about motivation, my body, and my limitations. Learning that if I don’t put the effort in, I don’t get the results back. And learning that there’s a great deal to be learnt from others: authors, friends, trainers, coaches and people you meet along the way. (A huge thank you to all of you!)

Reading Half Marathon was run on the same day as the New York City Half Marathon. Over 16,000 runners took part, compared to about 10,000 in New York. Our fastest runner was Simon Kasimili from Kenya at 1 hour, 3 minutes and 8 seconds. New York was won by Mo Farah from Great Britain in 1 hour 23 seconds. Both deeply impressive and scarily fast. There’s a big difference between the best and the rest.

So although this project started out as being “One Year; One Run” it’s turned out to be just the beginning. The next goal is to run October’s Henley half marathon in under 2.5 hours. It won’t make headlines, but might give me a small feeling of satisfaction. As well as sore feet....

Working through consensus

Collaboration is very much on my mind at the moment, so it’s perhaps not surprising that a new book caught my eye. "Smart Swarm" by Peter Miller suggests that the business world can learn from the behaviour of bees, ants and other animals. These groups communicate and make decisions by consensus, rather than follow-the-leader.

It isn’t the only book of its kind: Wikinomics by Don Tapscott considers mass collaboration across the internet.

Just a couple of weeks ago I was introduced to the concept of crowd sourcing – a concept which has appeared on my radar several times since – but was previously unknown to me.

All of these ideas highlight what we already know – that we work better together than we do alone.

The idea isn’t without its detractors: some believe that intelligent, trained specialists will always make better decisions than a large, generalist group. That may well be true, but there appears to be an ever increasing number of examples, from an increasing number of authors, suggesting that overall groups fare better than individuals at making good decisions.

All of which has big implications for the workplace. Wikis, discussion forums, team collaboration software are ways to facilitate communication, discussion and better work. Twitter is the latest in a long line of innovative ways of digitally getting people together. Ebay, Facebook and LinkedIn also spring to mind.

Of course great work doesn’t have to be the product of a sizeable group, evidence suggests that many successful endeavours are built on partnerships. Crick and Watson, of DNA fame, are a good example. Bill Hewlett and David Packard of Hewlett-Packard are another famous duo. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. I could go on, but you get the idea.

All of which flies in the face of the traditional CEO as leader and saviour of an organisation.

Are times a changing? Is software genuinely helping us work together more effectively? Could we prevent disasters such as the financial meltdown of 2008/09 by listening to the group, rather than the few? The little crowd of recently published books on the subject suggest there is something in this concept, but only time, and consensus, will tell.

Meetings, bloody meetings

I noticed the heading of blog post a few days ago: "10 Ways to Get out of Meetings". I didn’t read it, but suspect it was popular. Too many meetings are less productive than they should be.

Instead of trying to avoid meetings, though, how about figuring out how to make meetings more useful, and more effective? After all, two or three or four heads are always better than one. It’s just that it takes a little effort to get a meeting to work well. When creativity and problem solving start to work in a co-operative way, meetings are worth their weight in gold.

So, with reference to John Cleese’s excellent film “Meetings Bloody Meetings” here are 10 ways to get more out of meetings:

1. Prepare in advance (Is the meeting necessary? Who should attend? What is already known? Are sensitive issues being discussed that merit face to face discussion, etc, etc)
2. Set clear meeting objectives
3. Have an agreed agenda
4. Make sure everyone is invited who needs to be there, and that they have the opportunity to give their input during the meeting
5. Give people time to prepare in advance (with sight of relevant information)
6. Ensure everyone is working from the same documentation (up to date agenda, budgets, documents, etc)
7. Keep to time (start, finish, take individual items off-line if they are taking too much time)
8. Record decisions and key points in the minutes
9. Follow-up after the meeting
10. Use a collaboration tool to keep everything together rather than relying on email (it provides structure and reduces the risk of missing things): Dates, times, attendees, objectives, the agenda, additional documents, minutes

It isn’t rocket science, but it is almost always more work than we first reckon. If that means having fewer, but better, meetings that would likely suit everyone. Including whoever is trying to get things done.

My very old copy of John Cleese’s book “How to Run a Meeting” always brings a smile to my face. Cleese’s eyes are raised skywards in sympathy in frustration at yet another unnecessary, unproductive and unbelievably long meeting.

Collaboration and knowledge-sharing is much more of a framework than it was in the 1970’s where the emphasis was on controlling meetings. Yet the dangers of rambling, unfocused discussion is as great today as it was then. So Cleese’s 1976 book stays on my bookshelf, alongside my 2010 collaboration software.

Why email isn’t the answer

Email has revolutionised our lives. No question. The days of typing memos and sending them round to the next office in a large brown envelope have long gone. (I realise the Facebook generation have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about. You will just have to take it on trust that that’s what happened in the “old days”.)

So we’ve come a long way. In the blink of an eye my email can be in Edinburgh or Bangalore. I can even attach a document or a spreadsheet. Communication is easier than it has ever been.

But when it comes to organising information, email has a lot to answer for.

Yes, we can get our message across quickly. Yes, we can circulate documents to any number of people very quickly. But what we can’t do is order and prioritise information.

We can’t ensure everyone has remembered to read the agenda before the meeting. We don’t always send out everything for the meeting all together. And sometimes things have to be amended before the meeting.

So all you can be sure of is that your message has gone to the top of someone’s inbox - until the next message arrives. Then the next. And the next. Until your message is, well, somewhere in the pile of emails. Then it’s anyone’s guess what gets retrieved before that crucial meeting.

What’s needed is a way of organising information so everything is together:

• The meeting objectives
• The agenda
• The latest version of documents relating to the meeting
• Attendees
• Date, time and location of the meeting
• Minutes after the meeting

And indeed to make sure that other documents such as budgets or project plans are easily to hand.

Whilst email has revolutionised the world of work, there is still further to go.

Collaboration software complements email by adding organisation and order. It enables everything to be in one place for everyone to access. So there is one version of the objectives and agenda. And, crucially, everyone is working on the latest copy of the proposal/budget/project plan (delete as appropriate).

So there is no last minute scrabbling around wondering where the meeting is being held, or whether anyone circulated an agenda. Because it’s all there together to be reviewed when you’re ready. Cool.

Do you have a business warm-up routine?

The start of my in-the-office-days is unexciting: a cup of peppermint tea, checking email, and catching up with gossip before settling down to work. Nothing unusual, but not terribly inspiring either. It doesn’t really set the scene for a high performance day.

Of course a meeting is different: I prepare differently, think differently, and take time to get myself ready. What a contrast! The day in the office I handle routinely (because it is), whilst meetings I give the respect and care they deserve.

Yet I spend far more time at my desk than I do in meetings. I get far more done at my desk than I do in meetings. My overall results are influenced every bit as much by my work in the office as those all-important meetings. So why don’t I prepare as carefully for a routine day?

My gym routine fares better. I always start with 20-30 minutes on the bike as a low impact way to get my body used to the idea of physical work. The warm-up prepares me mentally and physically for the exercise session to follow. It’s the norm in the gym; everyone knows you have to warm-up first.

Some days I get into the office already firing on all four with a clear view of everything I want to accomplish - days when I’ve done all the planning, and can get straight on with what needs to be done. But there are also days when I stare at the urgent tasks in front of me; a rabbit caught in the headlights of specifications, project plans and paperwork.

My business warm-up routine isn’t nearly as well established as my exercise warm-up. Nor is it setting me up for the high performance results I want. In fact until recently I’ve never really considered the need for a warm-up before the day starts.

Yet business is every bit as demanding as physical exercise. It may tax different muscles, but it needs focus, concentration, and preparation. If only we had business coaches in the same way we have sports coaches; someone to remind us that we have to warm up before starting work. Someone to point out that you have to see success in your mind before you can make success a reality. Someone to say: take 20-30 minutes before the day starts to get in the zone for the challenges that lie ahead.

Business borrows much vocabulary from the sports field, maybe its time to steal a few routines too. Nor only for the physical benefits, but for mental alertness, improving focus on important goals, and getting into high-performance flow mode.

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.

6 rocketing benefits from business recipes

Do you love to cook? Do you have a recipe book? It’s much easier and quicker to make delicious food when you have a recipe. Ingredients don’t get missed out, and if you get interrupted, you simply go back to the recipe to see where you are in the process. If you are in a real hurry, you can whizz through the steps knowing the final result will be just as good as if you spent hours on it.

Can you imagine the haphazard results you would get if you tried to cook from memory?

Businesses also need good processes, or recipes, for all the same reasons. A process is just that, a standard “recipe” that enables things to be done in the same way every time. Standardising as much as possible means:

1. The task can be reliably estimated for time and resource
2. The results will be the same (or very similar) each time
3. Work will get done faster once the process is established
4. Mistakes (big and small) are less likely
5. You can make changes, and measure the impact
6. Customer confidence will increase as they come to trust your consistent quality

A process may be as simple as a checklist, or as complex as a manual describing how to do something. I saw a wonderful example of a NASA checklist complete with their wicked sense of humour. Quite instructive!

Creating good processes and checklists isn’t rocket science, but it seems rocket scientists wouldn’t go moon-walking without one.

Book review: The Snowball

An unhurried weekend provided enough time to finish the weighty tome that is Alice Schroeder’s biography of Warren Buffett: The Snowball. Despite its 800+ pages it was illuminating and interesting throughout. Schroeder paints a picture of an unusually sharp mind, with an ice-cold analytical approach to business, which was singularly focused on business and money-making from an early age. Yet Buffett the man is illustrated with all his human emotions and vulnerabilities, particularly when it comes to his late wife Susie. The human drama behind the deals was at times heart-breaking; no amount of money can insulate us from pain and suffering. Yet much in the book was amusing and at times hilarious, particularly describing the young Buffett.

Buffett is a man who is more than generous with his desire to teach and inform, yet one that few could emulate. Despite having followed his teacher, Benjamin Graham, Buffett admits that very few should attempt to invest their money in the way he has. For the majority he recommends a low-cost tracker fund. Oddly enough, the same advice about investing that I concluded after my six month long MBA finance course.

If you are interested in investing, business, or the life of one of the world’s richest and most thoughtful men, I'd recommend it highly. It has changed my attitudes to quite a few different types of businesses. You can't ask more than that, can you?

The secret of success

I’m a voracious reader, and am currently enjoying The Snowball by Alice Schroeder. It’s densely packed 800+ pages recount the life of Warren Buffet, the second richest man in the world and a billionaire many times over. I have just reached the part where he meets Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, and they surprise themselves by getting along so well.

In one very telling line, Gates’ father asks the pair what they would attribute their success to. Both answer simply: “focus”.

As advice it has been echoed many times by many people, but coming from arguably the two most successful men of our time it is worth noting. Despite having a strong link with Microsoft I know relatively little about the life of Bill Gates, apart from what I read in Malcolm Gladwell’s insightful and entertaining book Outliers. Buffett, however, is portrayed in some detail by Schoeder, and he clearly has the ability to focus intensely for long periods of time.

Of course, the simple statement “focus” leaves out as much as it includes. Buffett is famous for his razor sharp mind and making dispassionate decisions only after careful analysis. However, both Gates and Buffett started early in their lives on their chosen paths and have never wavered in the pursuit of their goals – they both have the ability to focus for the long term.

Focusing on the task in hand can be done, with a little effort, by young or old, rich or poor, educated or uneducated. You don’t need training or a book to teach you how to do it. It’s very simple, really. But it does need determination and a willingness to forgo other things. Buffett has a computer in his office, but it’s not on his desk. When flying he buries himself in reading, rather than chatting to his travel companions. To Buffett these may seem obviously good uses of time, but they make blunt lessons for the rest of us.

Why performance measurement is worth the bother

Have you ever set out to do something badly? Ever carefully planned to fail? At one time or another, most of us have monumentally screwed up. By accident, though, not design.

We normally try to make a success of our work, projects, and relationships. Most of our planning efforts go into things we want to succeed at; most of our thought goes into what we want, rather than what we don’t want.

Yet when things go wrong, it’s normally because we haven’t paid enough attention. We didn’t bother to think through what we were aiming for, or to put plans in place to meet our objectives. Stuff goes wrong because we couldn’t be bothered to give it the time and trouble it deserved – whether it is a work project, a committee, a personal relationship or a personal goal. How many New Year resolutions were made and then forgotten just as quickly?

Of course not everything is worth the bother of doing well. Sometimes we try to do too much and have to let things go. But projects or relationships that are important to us need time and attention, and are worth the bother - which is where performance measurement comes in.

Measuring and tracking performance, and learning when things go off course, is time consuming. But it means that those projects go well. Those projects get the attention they need. Performance measurement and improvement isn’t a freebie – it takes a little time and a little effort but is well worth the bother. At least it is for those things that we want, or need to get right.

Want to improve? Identify the process!

Contrary to what self-help gurus would have you believe, making improvements is not all about positive thinking and the laws of attraction. Improvement is actually a little more mundane. Yes, you have to be motivated to improve, and yes you have to be determined to see your project through, but there are some pretty simple steps to making improvements – either in business or elsewhere.

Firstly the activity must be enumerated, so that the process is spelt out in black and white. Only then will anyone have half a chance to improve it. If you don’t or won’t figure out the process, then it will be different every time and any performance improvement will be temporary or coincidental.

Atul Gawande was highlighted in The Times yesterday for his work in getting surgeons to adopt a checklist (The doctor taking safety to new heights – January 25 2010, The Times). Checklists reduce mistakes and stress, and provide a foundation for improvement. Whilst the idea can hardly be classed as revolutionary, it is telling how much resistance he is facing. With many intellectual activities, there is reluctance to “reduce” work to a number of steps or a checklist. The emotional reaction is that it somehow lessons the importance of the person or their experience, which, of course, is very far from the truth. In fact, it provides the basis for excellent work to be done, and "silly" mistakes to be avoided.

There is always scope for improvement, even with the simplest of jobs. There is often even more scope for improvement with complex activities. But the first step is always to figure out what the process is, so that the team can think about whether that really is the best way of doing things.

Atul Gawande has written a whole book about checklists, which is in itself eye-opening. It’s published on Thursday and is called The Checklist Manifesto.

If you have enjoyed this article, please recommend it to your followers on Twitter or Stumble or Digg It. It only takes a moment and brings such a smile to the author’s face when you do.

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.

The Squash League

During my younger and fitter days I played squash. My club had a squash league which most of the players joined – whether they were county standard or huff-and-puff standard like me. The fact that most people participated, and enjoyed the leagues, was a testament to how important measurement was to us all. We WANTED to know how good or bad we were. We NEEDED the motivation of playing better players and winning games against our peers. We CRAVED the practice that would make us better.

Such enthusiasm is in marked contrast to how most of us perceive measurement and keeping score in a work situation. So what’s the difference?

Firstly, the squash leagues were designed to measure like with like. If you got put in a league that was too difficult you lost games and slid down the leagues until you found your level. Equally good players rose through the leagues until they found worthy opponents. I never had to be humiliated by playing county players and they never had to waste their time while I repeatedly ran to the corners to fetch the ball. We compared ourselves against similar standards. This is important. If we want measurement to be effective at work we have to be careful how we compare measures. A salesperson working in a complex and difficult market would be best compared to others in a similar situation, whether internal or external to the organisation. Comparing her to someone working in a boom market isn’t going to produce good results; more likely cause resentment and be de-motivating. Whereas comparing people in the same division, or selling the same product, or if the section is large organising results by “leagues” can create positive competition. I’ve seen this work well and badly in large organisations.

The second difference is the way the scores are used. In my squash club I was accepted as a member by good, bad and indifferent players alike. There was healthy competition and encouragement to improve through coaching and “club nights.” Club nights put players of all abilities together so better players could help weaker players. It was done in a spirit of fun, learning and mutual cooperation. Beginners, older players and plain lousy players were accepted just as much as the stars.

Thirdly, there was no blame culture. No one got reprimanded for losing a game. No one got taken aside because they had lost 6 games in succession. No one was ever asked to leave the club because their volleying was too poor. As a result we all participated enthusiastically and eagerly awaited the results of each league reshuffle.

So how can this be replicated at work?

Working hard to engender a no-blame culture is important. If measurement is used as a rod to beat people with, there should be no surprises when it isn’t embraced enthusiastically. Creating a learning environment is also important. If we wanted to climb the leagues, we invested in coaching and hours of practice.

Measurement pointed out the difference between our aspirations and actuality – and work is no different. Improvement comes through taking appropriate actions, such as training, coaching, or doing more of something.

I hate to think where I might be in the squash leagues now – even if I could find my old racquet. But the lesson in improvement and measurement is useful, and doesn’t require nearly so much huff and puff!

Starting out with performance measures

If you don’t have a culture of performance measurement and improvement in your business then starting out can be a little daunting. There are so many things you could and perhaps should measure that it can take a long time to figure it all out. Added to which performance measures need to be closely linked to your strategy, which might be in a state of transition.

There are two places you could start – either with the area of your organisation which is in most need of improvement, or with some of your existing measures.

You will get fast results by starting with the area that most needs to be improved - an important factor with any new initiative. Because it is a priority you are likely to think more carefully and get buy-in from others. Focus on the results you want to achieve, rather than the data that is available. Too often we measure what is easy, rather than what really matters. Measures can have positive or negative effects, depending on how they are used and the culture of your organisation. Think of the possible loop-holes or ways of “cheating the system” that might be encouraged by your measures. If measures are used as a way of learning how to improve performance, they will be more successful than if they are used as a means of control.

The other place you could start is with existing measures. Even if you or your organisation is relatively immature with performance measures you will certainly be measuring a number of different things – perhaps more than you realise. Make a list of everything you currently measure. Think about who uses the measure, how often, and what value it adds. What would happen if you didn’t have the measure? Would performance increase, decrease, or not be affected? Does it drive behaviours that bring you closer to your objectives? These answers will give you some insight into how effective these measures are. Then consider which measures to keep, which to ditch, and which need to be replaced with something more meaningful.

Performance measurement, like the underlying performance it seeks to improve, is a process of continuous improvement and refinement. You have to start somewhere if you want to improve performance, so make a choice and find a measure that will bring you closer to an important objective.

All snowed up and no place to go

Like many other people in the South East yesterday I got snowed up. It took me two hours to go round one roundabout and come back to work. No roads were gritted, and cars were sliding around in their unreasonable and unrealistic hope of getting home. In my short journey I must have seen 3 or 4 blue flashing ambulance lights and multiple roadside rescue vehicles skidding around like everyone else. The radio reported one serious accident that the ambulance was unable to get to because roads were gridlocked. Chaos is too neat a word to describe what was happened on Berkshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire roads yesterday.

But, as Scarlet pointed out, tomorrow is another day so after a makeshift night at the office I’m up to see whether today brings brighter weather and passable roads. Surprise, surprise, after the complexity of the argument about measuring the performance of local councillors, the local Reading Transport web site hasn’t been updated since 15.30 yesterday. I guess they were too busy getting home, or maybe they thought there was no point as stranded cars don’t have internet access anyway. I doubt it’s the responsibility of part-time Councillors to update the web site, but between full time council employees, and local Councillors, basic services like information and gritting were not available.

It seems every year that the local authorities get caught out, which means that every year we get caught out. After the fiasco that has been Eurostar over the last few days, and the complaints about lack of information, even if gritting lorries couldn’t get out you would have thought that someone somewhere would have made information a priority. But even though it’s taken me a full 30 minutes to tone down this blog post, the latest traffic information is still missing.

I have no doubt that it's not much fun being in the firing line when the snow starts to fall, but winter happens approximately once every year and preparing for it seems a sensible precaution. The only gritting lorries that were seen yesterday weren't working. It may be performance under pressure, but surely tax payers deserve better?

No one ever got a pig fat by weighing it

Andrew Templeman of the Cabinet Office is quoted as saying:

“No one ever got a pig fat by weighing it.”

Wise words which are well worth remembering as we focus on improving business performance through measurement and evaluation. All the measurement in the world is useless unless the work gets done, and to a high standard. The measurement is only there to help, motivate and enable problems to be identified. So reporting and execution must be hand in glove (that’s execution of the work, not of the person doing the measurement).

As I rattled through my work this morning armed with a report that helped me measure the task (not a job I particularly enjoy doing) I thought about how I get through my exercise routine. I don’t enjoy that either, and certainly not when I’m out of shape as I am right now. But seeing the counter click forwards to my goal keeps me going – whether on the exercise bike or my report. Getting closer to my target, and that magical green traffic light, was enough to get the job done.

Fattening my pigs (or slimming them down) requires solid work over a period of time. Someone once quipped that dieting is like project management: it’s not much fun, goes on a very long time, and no one notices the results. But measuring the results at least keeps the task, project or pig going.

So although no one ever got a pig fat by weighing it, they did get a good meal by making sure the pig got fed every day. Which is really what performance management is all about: measuring the scraps of work that bring us closer to the goal (or lunch).