Prove It!

CHAPTER 6 EVIDENCE: ANYTHING THAT MATTERS CAN BE MEASURED

What is more urgent than measuring the results that matter most to us? The way most organisations function, you'd think that just about everything else is more urgent than measuring. Sure, people say that measuring the results that matter is important, but it does tend to fall to the bottom of everyone's to-do list.

Evidence means measuring

If you were to ask me, I'd say that nothing is more urgent than measuring what matters. Most of those other things that are higher on the to-do list include fixing problems, reacting to other people's priorities and catching up on overdue milestones. These so-called urgent things are actually the product of not measuring what matters!

If we don't measure the results that matter, then we really have little idea if we're achieving them. Unless we are measuring what matters, and measuring it well, we can be certain that:

Without measures, luck plays a bigger role than it should.

• we're delaying the achievement of our goals
• we're not investing in the highest-leverage change initiatives
• our ‘urgent' basket will always be overflowing.

Without measures, luck plays a bigger role than it should in our desired results becoming reality.

Scorecards aren't measures

One of the first mistakes people make in their pursuit of measures is to assume the strategic planning model they use to design their strategic goals and change initiatives will produce them. When I started my career in performance ...