Chess Not Checkers

What’s Next?

In the weeks leading up to the planning retreat, a new energy swept the company. The leaders were talking with their team members about what was important and how they might keep score. The ideas generated were diverse—some more creative than others. But all the metrics were effective in letting everyone know the score. They included time to fill a customer’s order, accuracy, returns, waste, and overall customer satisfaction. On the Marketing team, Suzy led the group to think beyond sales to the source of sales; they set goals around sales from new customers as well as existing customers. They also decided the size of the order was a good metric to consider. All in all, Blake was pleased. Real, substantive conversations about the ...