What is your measure of success?

measure We have all heard the saying ... what get's measured gets managed

What if we are measuring the wrong thing ... acting on this information ... and then things aren't improving?

Speed Kills!

Homer Simpson's response ... DOH!!

The way that our road authorities hit us with their message, you would think that speed was the only reason accidents occurred.

What about ...

fatigue
distractions
blood alcohol
skills
training
road conditions
weather
time of day
vehicle maintenance
experience behind the wheel
and so on?

I'm not surprised that the road safety authorities are obsessed with speeding - it's an easily measured factor in a sea of all those possible factors.

The message that speed kills is oh so simple to sell, even easier to monetise (raise revenue) and it's just a small step to attribute meaning to that limited data set and blame speeding for almost everything.

This road safety TVC is a particularly good example of this, blaming speed for three dangerous behaviours none of which include speed in any way

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We are so clever at recognising patterns, applying meaning to the data behind them and then wondering why the response is not achieving the outcome we seek.

Mark Scaffe recently made what were, to some some, over the top remarks in relation to speed, when all he did was raise other serious contributory factors to accidents.

“Don’t just focus on the one thing that is controversial (speed), focus on the other items that are critical to road safety, the things we have to do to make a difference"

In your business, as with road safety, ensure that you go well beyond the easily measurable data - consider instead what factors might be meaningful and find new ways to measure them.

Sometimes in business, as with traffic accidents, what we measure is the easiest outcome and not the underlying cause of that outcome.

Expenses
Overtime
Cost of Goods Sold
Energy Bill
Waiting
Wages
Productivity
Replication
Wastage
Reworks/Defects
Inventory

So if what you measure gets managed make sure you measure what is important not what's the easiest.

1 Comment

Adam Gordon makes this comment

Tuesday 24 August, 2010

1.Use data to measure, monitor and control – not to blame. Remember Dr. Deming, “Wherever there is fear, there will be wrong figures.”
2.Price’s Dictum – No inspection or measurement without proper recording; No recording without analysis; No analysis without action.
3.Do not look under street lamps – it can be tempting to settle for the data that is easy to get rather than that which is useful. (This is sometimes expressed as “Avoid using research as drunks use lamp posts – for support rather than illumination”.)