The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months

Chapter 16

Keeping Score

Measurement drives the execution process. It is your touchstone with reality. Truly effective measurement combines both lead and lag indicators to provide the comprehensive feedback needed for informed decision making. It is the feedback loop that lets you know if your actions are effective.

Adam Black discusses the impact that his simple and daily measurement system had on his results.

The 12 Week Year was suggested to me by a business partner at the end of 2011. It was perfect timing. After reading the book several times I knew without a doubt that this system fit me perfectly.

I am the typical Type A personality, hard charging, aggressive, but sometimes missing the small details. With the 12 Week Year, I was able to slow myself down and systematically project what I wanted to achieve in a 12 Week Year in order to ultimately reach my longer-term objectives. I found that the beauty of it was that I could adjust my 12 week plans based on how my numbers moved.

To help me stay focused on my highest value tasks, I created a simple 12 week calendar as a visual aid to measure my progress. The calendar keeps track of my two key daily lead and lag metrics every day. When I go home each night, I now know exactly where I stand in terms of my 12 week goal.

By tying these daily metrics to reaching my 12 week goal for dollar volume and units, I saw an increase of 65 percent in unit and dollar volume in 2012! As a result of applying the 12 Week Year, I’ve also already ...