Measures trigger work. You're either creating measures, gathering data for them, reviewing them, or trying to improve them. That work will often be resisted due to confusion and credibility concerns. I coach my clients to know 4 things about every measure they have:
Where does the data come from? This is the most common challenge leaders throw at measures. "I don't trust the source, so I don't need to act." You need to know what department pulls the data, if they transform it in some way, who quality checks the data, and who loads it into your scorecard. What is excluded from the data? Too often, leaders look at measures for months without really understanding what the numbers mean. Specifically, they don't really know what's included and excluded from the numbers. It's important to know those nuances before you spend time and money on improving the numbers. Why did we set the target? Typically, those who are responsible for acting on measures weren't in the meeting when the target was set. Many times, there's even confusion within the team that set the target. I ask my clients to find out who set the target and what the rationale was for setting it. What accumulation do we care about? Knowing the answer to this subtle question will help you clear up a lot of confusion. Each time the scorecard team meets to discuss the measure, is it more important to talk about performance YTD, performance just this period, or the performance as a snapshot in time?
Let me know if you consider other questions that I didn't mention.
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