Key Performance Indicators: Developing, Implementing, and Using Winning KPIs, 3rd Edition

Chapter 12Determining Measures That Will Work in Your Organization (Stage 5)

Overview

Many performance measures are created from a flawed process. Frequently the task of finding measures is carried out at the last minute by staff members who do not have a clue about what is involved in finding a measure that will create the appropriate behavioral response. This chapter looks at common reasons why organizations get their measures radically wrong, how to design appropriate measures, the need for a performance measure database, and how you help teams select the appropriate measures. This chapter also outlines the tasks required in this stage and gives instructions on how to access, free of charge, a PDF of the suggested worksheets and checklists to be used by the KPI project team.

In this important stage (Stage 5 in the methodology) we need to first understand how to determine measures, how to record them, understand the importance of sorting the wheat from the chaff, and agree that measures are best found at the workface by teams rather than the traditional top-down approach of the balanced scorecard. Having made this agreement, we need to understand how to sell the KPI methodology to the employees as well as explain how the workshops are run.

How to Derive Measures: An Overview

Many performance measures are created from a flawed process. Numerous methodologies, including the balanced scorecard, appear to simply say the measures are a by-product of the exercise. Frequently ...