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Identify the Measures First
“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”
Albert Einstein
Awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, named Time’s Man of the Century in 1999, and best known for his conception of the theories of special and general relativity
Organizations today seem to have a never ending supply of performance measures. Our data rich environment feeds the need of many managers to have all things counted. Yet as Albert Einstein suggests, not everything that can be counted matters. And just because something is counted doesn’t make it important. Thus, not everything that is measurable should be assigned its own performance indicator; rather only those things that are truly important, whether currently counted or not, should be measured. The identification of performance measures should therefore start with the identification of the key factors critical to the organization’s success.
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Additional Information
The following StrategyDriven articles and whitepapers provide additional information on the identification of those performance measures important to the organization’s ongoing success:
Articles
- The New Thinking on KPIs, part 1 of 4 by David Parmenter
- The New Thinking on KPIs, part 2 of 4 by David Parmenter
- The New Thinking on KPIs, part 3 of 4 by David Parmenter
- The New Thinking on KPIs, part 4 of 4 by David Parmenter
StrategyDriven Podcast – Special Edition
- An Interview with David Parmenter, author of Key Performance Indicators, part 1 of 2
- An Interview with David Parmenter, author of Key Performance Indicators, part 2 of 2
Whitepaper
Resource – Book
- Strategy Maps by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
The spike in demand for consultants, services, and products around the first of the year (or in the government’s case the beginning of October) appears to be a natural part of the business cycle. The fact that there is an onrush in spending, however, suggests the existence of an artificial driver. Truth be told, it’s the time of year when many companies replenish their budgets and subsequently start or restart their projects – all at the same time. And while there may be a certain logic to this occurrence from a dollars and cents perspective, simultaneously launching so many projects challenges the organization from a human resource perspective, namely, that there are often not enough people within the organization to staff all of these projects at the same time.
Buy-in, engagement, support… terms used to suggest commitment to a particular course of action, but are they really? What is true commitment?
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At one time or another, we have all been told that we should use the right tools for the job. And it’s easy to understand how using the proper tools and possessing the appropriate skills helps a given assignment proceed at optimal efficiency; which is also to say at the lowest cost.
Business Programs