Measurement in an Organization Defines Culture

Measurement communicates to everyone what is most important to an organization and how the person, team or department fits into the organization. In order for measurement to be effective it generally needs to posses the following three characteristics.

1. Fits into and relates directly to the big picture. Again, this is why clarity is step one. If everyone in the organization clearly knows what the plan is they can know why the measurement at hand is important. I have found that the best way to ensure that measurement is effective and taken seriously is to have the people responsible for the measures design what the measures should be. By doing this the people responsible are also designing the process of executing the plan and strategy. The White Board Video accompanying this post will go through an exercise that demonstrates how to do this as well as accomplish the following two points.

2. Immediately Self-Measureable. Self Measurement is only effective if it is easily measureable at any moment by the people responsible. If it takes more time to measure or think about measuring than it does to write this sentence, typically people will not measure. Instead, they will get wrapped up in just trying to get things done because measurement has become something that gets in the way of getting things done. My experience has show that if something takes longer than 30 seconds to measure, people avoid measuring.

3. Public. People like and need to perform. If you do not create an environment where they are performers they will not perform. Give people a stage and watch what happens to performance! Making measureables public allows people the opportunity to show how they contribute to the objective. This is healthy from both the perspective of someone knowing where they fit as well as everyone else knowing where that person, team or department fits in an organization.

“Measurement is to an organization as Language is to a society”

Language communicates what is most important in a society and how we as individuals fit into it. Measurement does the exact same thing.

Like language, measurement has infinite dialects and subtext. When one realizes this, the act of measurement becomes an art. Just like mastering a new language, mastering the art of measurement becomes one of (if not the most powerful) of all the assets in your toolbox.

Generally when I am working with clients and we start talking about measurement, almost inevitably one of the “right brain” types pipes up and insists "numbers don’t lie" and that the "measurement is in the bottom line profit". I fully recognize this has validity but I view the bottom line profit as the result and not the measure. If organizations wait until they get their results to determine what needs to be done next, then that organization is in big trouble.

In general I have found most often that measurement is viewed as a discipline. It is quite often something that is imposed or insisted upon by management and shareholders. I rarely have seen a company be sustainable when measurement is enforced. Enforcement of measurement is usually done out of desperation. When I refer to desperation I mean the organization is in trouble and management is looking to increase “productivity” or “output”. Most often I see this as a case of managers and shareholders/investors confusing measurement with results.

Next post we will run through an exercise that can be used to build daily measurement into every position in an organization.