Are You Measuring The Right Stuff?

I received a phone call from a manager complaining that his new boss is asking for 30 reports to be generated each month. The stated purpose for all of this data is to better manage performance by making factually based decisions. Well, that sounds like a worthwhile goal. In a world that is fighting fluff, facts are good.

But it's not working.

Why not?

a. The business unit has enough time to generate the reports but not to run the business.

b. As a result, business performance is not getting better. (But now they can tell exactly how much worse they're doing).

c. The people are committed to good performance. But now performance is being equated with "reports  generated" vs. "income earned."

You can see where this is headed.

Are you measuring the right things? That's a question for all of us, even when managing our households or our careers.

If you want to get a better grip on this, here are the first five chapter titles from The Knowing-Doing Gap to give you some incentive to check out the book and focus your doing in the right places:

1. Knowing "What" To Do Is Not Enough
2. When Talk Substitutes for Action
3. When Memory Is A Substitute for Thinking
4. When Fear Prevents Acting on Knowledge
5. When Measurement Obstructs Good Judgment

In an email exchange with co-author Bob Sutton, we both noted the following observation: If you are talking a lot about execution, you probably aren't executing.

Starting today: Do the right things. Measure the right stuff.

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BTW: If you aren't up for the entire book, you can download: 

Knowing "What" to Do Is Not Enough: Understanding the Knowing-Doing Gap and

Turning Knowledge into Action: Reducing the Knowing-Doing Gap

Comments

[Karin H.]

Hi Steve

Oh, this brings back memories ;-)
Years ago I was 'promoted' from the Admin-IT department to the Sales department. Main task: turn the increasing computer data into management reports.

Right on cue every month management would ask if for next month I could include this or that item. Monthly report, which started with 2 comprehensive pages, grew into a full blown 15 page document (and then some asked to have parts of it on a weekly base).
Still, nothing really changed in the way the company was managed, where priorities switched to or which activities were canceled based on data/facts in the report.
They - the management - just like to see all those figures and graphs in different forms and drill-downs all those pages.
(The only one who profited IMHO was the company supplying the paper ;-))

Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

[Steve Roesler]

Karin,

First, I want to thank your former employer, since many of my clients are in the paper industry or suppliers to the paper industry.

This whole phenomenon may simply reflect the human need for information and then, more information. At the same time, it magnifies the need for business people everywhere to determine what is really important and what isn't. Sooner or later, wouldn't it make sense for a high-level manager to suddenly say, "How much time and how many people are involved in generating all of this?"

A quick note: I am following your AWeber venture and presume that you are tracking the important statistics carefully, which means you have your own set of reports. Are you getting the kind of data that are helpful?

[Karin H.]

Hi Steve

On that quick note: yes - very helpful indeed! It told me to make a U(PAG)-turn or with other words: back to the drawing board with the method, the medium I've chosen, the landing-page and AdWord ad.
;-)

Karin H. (glad to have been of service to your clients all those years ago, not any longer I'm afraid. Now I recycle ever piece of paper I print out that doesn't have to be send to prospects or clients)

[Steve Roesler]

Karin,

Oh, so the information actually showed that you needed to change direction a bit?

[Karin H.]

Hi Steve

I have to change direction - full stop - on the AWeber Guide I made.

I don't have to change direction on what AWeber has meant for our business, in fact we just have to travel forward in the same direction and perhaps even quicken pace ;-)
(40% of new clients are first AWeber 'prospect' - such a great marketing tool!)

Karin H.

[Deb Nystrom]

Business Intelligence and decision support is the lingo circulating at the big university here. A business intelligence community has formed. With the metrics focus and the reports being generated, I am curious as to how managers view execution success, if reflection of the data finds it's way into a successful niche in the managerial workload. We hear a lot lately about staffing workloads and budget stress.

I'll stay tuned. --D

[Wally Bock]

A pastor friend of mine got the idea that all those reports that denominational headquarters asked for were just going into a file someplace, but that no one was even looking at them, let alone doing anything with them except creating more reports.

Part of his annual report asked for the size of his educational facilities. For three years he expanded the number he entered, until he was reporting facilities about the size of Australia. Then, for three more years, he contracted the reported size of his facilities until they would, ostensibly, fit easily on a playing card.

So far so good. But his mistake was to let HQ know what he'd done. He promptly received a letter requesting corrected reports for the previous six years and admonishing him for not taking seriously the information needs of the national church. For the rest of his life, he kept that letter, framed, on the wall in his study.

[Steve Roesler]

Karin,

It sounds as if you are, indeed, measuring the right things and getting the kind of info you need to make good decisions. It's also a good testimony to the AWeber folks.

[Steve Roesler]

Deb,

Hey, would you keep us posted here? The university community is not one that would automatically be associated with metrics, let alone for quick follow-through on execution. (I am a former college administrator and hope that my vivid recollections are no longer accurate).

Is the Business Intelligence "community" a discussion group or an action group?

[Steve Roesler]

Wally,

I know that confession is good for the soul; however, I was not familiar with the Doctrine of Paperwork Penitence. I think your pastor friend has a legitimate argument here. If more paperwork is the answer to all things spiritual, then the world would have had Luther's *Large* Catechism.