All too often we find companies that are struggling with measures that don’t work.  Sometimes there are way too many measures for the people in the organisation to focus on.  Sometimes the measures are simply poorly designed and result in behaviour which creates waste and inventory.  Sometimes the measures simply don’t make sense to those being measured and are not taken seriously.  Sometimes the measures simply don’t help us focus on the causes of the problem or issue.

Our measures should provide immediate real-time feedback on performance, and create opportunities for improvement every minute of every day.  They should be driving us toward the the Ideal State for the process, and be helping us to eliminate waste and improve the flow through every process in our organisation.  They should be designed to engage and encourage the entire workforce to become actively involved in frequent “experimentation” to improve everything we do.

Our measures should also be designed to encourage us all to go and observe what is actually happening in the process.

The measures should form a balanced and dynamic link between our value streams and our daily problem solving processes.  To achieve “balance” it is useful to ensure we have measures that cover the following set of categories: Quality, Cost, Delivery, Safety and Morale (or Engagement).  The actual measures will depend on the process but should be metrics that are meaningful and “real” for the team who owns them.  To increase the level of ownership and buy-in it is useful to have the team involved with the creation and implementation of the measures, and to have the measures displayed close to the workplace in a format that the team can update easily and frequently.  Also it is important to remember the selected measures need to be metrics that the team can actually influence.

But what should we do if we already have measures in place?  Well here are 3 simple ways to start improving your measurement systems.  These have been written by Stacey Barr.  (Stacey’s contact details are included below.)

#1: Stop Reporting It And See What Happens

Decide, this month, to simply not include all the usual measures and statistics in the performance report that you suspect no-one refers to. You’ll soon work out, by trial and error, which measures really do matter, because they’ll be missed. It will help everyone else work out what really matters, too.

#2: Test Its Alignment To Strategy

Grab a flipchart page, or whiteboard, some pens, your business plan, and a list of all the measures you currently report. Along the top of the page or whiteboard, write each of the business goals. Then one goal at a time, list the measures that really, truly are fabulous evidence of the achievement of that goal. If the measure isn’t fabulous evidence, then flick it.

#3: Have A Single Version Of The Truth

Don’t measure the same thing in 12 different ways. Decide the one true way to calculate and report the measure, and standardise on that. I’ve seen immense amounts of time wasted in measuring something as straightforward as cycle time over a dozen different ways by almost as many different people, simply because no-one drew a line in the sand and said “Here’s how we measure this.”

Stacey Barr is a specialist in organisational performance measurement, helping corporate planners, business analysts and performance measurement officers confidently facilitate their organisation to create and use meaningful performance measures with lots of buy-in. Sign up for Stacey’s free email tips at www.staceybarr.com/facilitators and receive a complimentary copy of her renowned e-book “202 Tips for Performance Measurement”.