Staff & Organization

In my mind there are two pre-requisites to problem solving: (1) first frame the problem or opportunity, and (2) then perform the analysis.

Vision and mission statements these days have reduced to a pedestrian, cliched, insipid product of jumping through strategic planning hoops. They've lost the ability to unite masses of people for a shared cause and imbued more cynicism into workforces. Ironically, the main reason that people will refuse to measure their vision or mission is the claim that they are deliberately broad for aspirational purposes and deliberately vague so everyone can find their own meaning in them. Being broad and vague means being immeasurable. Can you even tell which type of company the following mission statements belong to, let alone how to measure them?

"No-Meat Athlete" and Ironman Triathlon finisher Susan Lacke wrote an article called "From Couch Potato to Ironman - In 20 Months" and it discussed the 9 keys to her successful accomplishment of that great feat. Those 9 keys, to me at least, seem to perfectly apply to the successful accomplishment of great performance measurement. So here's my take on how Susan's 9 keys can work for we performance measurement practitioners too…

There have been several recent high-profile cases of scientists hoaxing, forging, trimming, cooking or falsifying their data. These cases occurred in spite of the fact that scientific publications must be peer-reviewed before publication, and that scientific findings must be replicated before they are confirmed.

Of all the business functions discussed in the arena of performance improvement over the years, Customer Service has certainly gotten its fair share. But lately, with the rapidly growing range of new enabling technologies, and an accelerated adoption rate that shows these technologies are starting to take root, we are now seeing some of the best performance “breakout” stories since the legendary FedEx, Nordstrom, and Toyota (Lexus) case studies of the 90’s.

Before the first workshop with a new client I meet with the organization’s CEO or Executive Director to share with them the purpose of the event, outline my approach, and review their role in helping the group achieve its desired outcomes. Although every individual is different, I’ve witnessed a remarkable commonality among the responses I receive from CEOs when discussing that last point, their role in the meeting. “Don’t let me dominate” is their universal refrain, followed quickly by “I need to hear what other people have to say.” On certain occasions such a caution is in order as some leaders are prone to monologue marathons that can rapidly suck the energy from the room, leaving others wondering why they were asked to attend in the first place.