We have all been part of the misery that goes hand in hand with becoming hyper focused on the tracking of our every movement to satisfy the insatiable set of metrics established by leadership.
While their monikers may differ from company to company, metrics, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), benchmarks, dashboards and the like are all futile for several reasons.
Metrics only measure consequences
Every metric I have been coerced to comply with has been extremely myopic in that they only gauge outcomes. On the surface, this may not sound like a problem; after all, companies are in the business of managing their resources in a manner that achieves outcomes. However, when metrics are created in the same manner, they fail to shine the spotlight on the myriad of factors that need to be orchestrated to facilitate the achievement of the objective at hand.
In addition, there are so many factors that can contribute to the attainment of a metric, that there are many times when the personnel accountable for meeting that metric, have little to do with its achievement.
Lifeless
Typical metrics are devoid of the real factors that make a company successful. What makes a company successful is not measured by metrics.
Every successful organization I have been a part have has had strong relationships among the staff that were responsible for getting work done. These deep relationships form a strong and resilient backbone that bear the load and propel the company to exemplary results. This cohesive internal organization is the means through which the company at large either wins or loses.
Metrics can be manipulated
Metrics that are too onerous or draconian and that are not accompanied with a culture of accountability and integrity will be haphazardly met. Any metric, contrived out of ignorance of what really needs to be measured, can be realized by simply skewing data and ignoring the circumstances around which it was met.
Making 100 sales calls a day might appear to be a robust measure of performance until the sales manager discovers their salesman was rude, obtuse or robotic in delivering the message to the potential lead being called.
On several occasions I was witness to project teams receiving awards for having met all cost and schedule targets for multimillion dollar projects whose cost and schedule objectives had been reset multiple times due to poor planning.
That’s the equivalent of winning the Superbowl in a game where only half of the opposing team shows up to play!
Metrics become the objective
Ultimately, the biggest risk to incorporating metrics without the correct backdrop and emphasis on team collaboration, the open sharing of ideas, and all other factors that lead to strong work relationships, is that the metrics become an end in and unto themselves. The real recipe for increased organizational value and the attainment of strategic get obfuscated, ignored and forgotten.
A recent article annotated the fact that organizations which lack the appropriate culture of collaboration and do not foster the creation of strong work relationships among their employees, get tossed to and fro with the ebbs and flows of a dynamic marketplace. With the tumultuousness of the economy around us, this sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Questions to Consider
Are you simply measuring end results at the expense of the infinitely more important factors of success that must be present for any worthwhile endeavor to be met?
Is your organization suspiciously meeting all metrics? If so, do you know why? If they are not, do you know why they are not?
To what heights could you propel your company if you derived those metrics that really measured the company’s capacity for success and simultaneously identified a lack of critical success factors?