#24 Your 9-Point Performance Culture Change Management Plan

Most performance measurement systems are never fully brought to life because of poor change management. The following prompts are a framework to design your performance measurement system, acknowledging that it is a change process, just like any other initiative your organisation faces in the spirit of continuous improvement and adaptation.

POINT 1: describe the difference your performance measures will make

What will it mean to have performance measurement working well in your organisation?

POINT 2: check who has control over initiating & maintaining this difference

Can you control the entire process of developing and using performance measures in your organisation? (Not likely.) Whose leadership, help and commitment will be important? Can you access, inspire and influence these people?

POINT 3: describe the differences in rich sensory detail

How do you want people to respond to developing and using performance measures? What will people be doing when then have performance measures? How will your organisation be different when it has and uses great performance measures? What old artifacts will be gone, and what new artifacts will replace them?

POINT 4: reflect on why you want performance measures

What is the ultimate reason why you want performance measures, why your organisation should have them? What can't your organisation achieve without performance measures? Will performance measures really be an important way to achieve these things? What else will you need to do?

POINT 5: define the evidence that will let you know performance measures are making the difference they should

What are the signs of the kind of performance measurement culture you want to nurture and mature? What will convince you and others that you have the "right" measures? How will you know that people are producing and using the measures properly? What are the indicators or flags of unwanted unintended consequences, or performance measurement "going bad"?

POINT 6: explore how performance measures will affect other things and be affected by other things

How are people likely to respond to the changes that come with developing and using performance measures? Which organisational systems, processes or structures help or hinder developing and using performance measures? For each effect you ponder, how can you avoid, overcome, work around, work with or compensate for it?

POINT 7: articulate the principles that will guide the change you are trying to make

What will be important to role model as your develop measures for your organisation? How should people all throughout the organisation be involved in the process? What philosophy about the role of performance measures will be important to weave through everything you do?

POINT 8: plan what needs to happen, when & where and who'll be involved

How will you engage the right people at the right times, stimulating their awareness, desire, knowledge and action? How will a framework that links measures to all levels of planning & decision making in the organisation be designed? How will those measures be brought to life, so they are regularly reported to the right people at the right times? How will you be certain that the measures will continue to be used, reviewed and replaced when no longer relevant?

POINT 9: work out the resources you will need to get from plan to reality

What amounts and types of funding, time, technology, space and knowledge do you need? Where will these resources come from? What will have to stop, be delayed or change to make this possible?

TAKING ACTION:
Are you treating performance measurement as an event, or as the process that it truly is? To build your performance measurement process, it helps to have a plan, just like any change project. Outline your plan using the prompts in this article. And if you want the step-by-step process to get you well and truly underway, read more about how the Performance Measure Blueprint can be your self-paced guide at http://www.staceybarr.com/PMBT.html.

#23 Five Steps to Find The Right Measures

How to find the right measures is the most asked question in the field of performance measurement. And it's little wonder, because the more meaningful measures track outcomes which tend to be less tangible than the traditional things we've measured, like how many widgets we produced.

How do you translate results so intangible as employee morale or service quality or corporate image into solid, robust measures?

The framework described here is an excerpt of the How-to Kit: How to Design Meaningful Performance Measures, which provides a systematic approach for taking almost all of the pain out of the challenge of finding the right measures.

STEP 1: Begin with the end in mind.

Performance measures are objective comparisons that provide evidence of an important performance outcome. It is of the utmost importance to decide which outcomes are most worth tracking right now. As the first step in deciding how to measure an outcome, write down what the outcome is, what the difference is you are trying to create (and thus want to track using a measure). Focus on one outcome at a time.

STEP 2: Be sensory specific.

When you have the end in mind, you are ready to get a handle on what specifically about your outcome you will measure. This is where you take care in your choice of words to describe the outcome as concretely as possible. Use "sensory" language - the language that describes what you and others would see, hear, feel, do, taste or smell if your outcome was happening now. Avoid those inert words that we so often see in our goal and objective statements, such as: efficient, effective, reliable, sustainable and quality.

STEP 3: Check the bigger picture.

Check the bigger picture for what could happen if you measure your outcome. What level of control do you have over achieving it? What might the unintended consequences of measuring the outcome be (both the positive and the negative)? What behaviour would the measures drive? Which other areas of performance might be sabotaged or limited? This is your first chance to change your mind about what's most worth measuring.

STEP 4: What's the evidence?

Now, get ultra specific and figure out what the potential measures are that could let you (and everyone else) know that the outcome is being achieved. For each of your sensory rich statements from step 2, what could you count to tell you the extent to which it is occurring? Which of these potential measures would be the optimal balance between objectivity and feasibility?

STEP 5: Name the measure.

Naming your performance measures marks the point at which you know exactly what you will be measuring. Be succinct and informative and deliberate, as you need to be able to continually and easily identify each measure as it moves through the steps of being brought to life and being used in decision making.

TAKING ACTION:
Create your own measure design template based on these 5 steps (or save time and use mine, which includes examples and more detailed instructions, in the How-to Kit: How to Design Meaningful Performance Measures). Now use your measure design template to start designing measures for the tricky goals and objectives and results and outcomes you've struggled to measure thus far. Practice makes perfect!