Last week, I had the pleasure of addressing an assembly of Florida local government performance management professionals. Yes, I was preaching to the choir, but they carry the message of the benefits of measurement back to their governments. I encouraged them to use sports analogies to explain the message. Pro teams track their win/loss records (and revenues) on their top level "scorecards," and the offense has a "linked" scorecard, as does the defense. Each player has "Personal Goals," such as completed passes, yards gained, etc. Players do not feel imposed on by measurement but understand that it is an essential tool for individual improvement and sustained high performance by the team. Moving to another sport, Michael Phelps does not get upset when his coach uses a stopwatch to measure his performance and he is used to knowing times for individual laps so he can assess his performance in segments from the time he leaves the blocks to the millisecond he touches the wall to finish.
This approach to discussing performance measurement often resonates for the athletes, former athletes and us fans. However, there still is a lingering fear of measurement. The fear is not irrational; the misuse of measurable goals goes back a long way in American business culture. Dr. Deming himself would rail on about arbitrary targets that were unreachable because of the limits of process capabilities. Regardless, they are used to "push" people, but in fact demoralize them. People rally around a reachable "stretch" goal, but lay down and push paper when the impossible is asked. If you ask me to do a six minute mile, I laugh or cry; I don't try. Ask me to walk a mile a day for my health, and we have a real conversation and I am motivated.
Which brings me to something new I have learned about measurement. It literally can be good for our mental and physical health. I recently heard a commencement speech by the Dean of the Education Department at the University of Miami. He stated that there is considerable research suggesting that people who have control over their work lives (are empowered) live longer and use the health system less. Empowered employees are employees with measurable personal and project goals and have great discretion in the approach to achieving goals and meeting specifications. Effective empowerment cannot be accomplished without performance measurement. This observation should help performance management professionals appreciate the importance of their work, not only for organizational excellence but also personal well being.
Dean Prilleltensky had another message for the graduates. Important human advances are made by changing systems/processes. We need to help individual managers use measurement to develop their organization and employees. More importantly, we need to affect how measurement and managment are taught and modeled by leadership.Maybe electing former pro athletes to Congress is not such a bad idea after all.
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