We all know that having performance measures isn't worth the paper they are printed on if they don't get used to drive performance improvement. But for many, there is a great leap from having performance reports to actually putting them to good use, and that's because the conversations that are had to interpret performance results don't have the conviction they really need. Here are some samples of conversation snippets I have heard over many years of performance measurement coaching and consulting. Which level does your organisation best fit?
signs of a poor performance conversation
Some of the signs that your performance conversations are next to a complete waste of time include hearing statements like these being made by those participating in the conversation:
"I think this project was a great success because last week I was talking to so-and-so and they said..."
"Well we did have to face quite a few challenges, and in the context of that, we've actually done quite well."
"You can see that this initiative was worthwhile because our annual customer survey result shows improvement."
"No we didn't really have any good measures, because it really isn't possible to measure this."
"Yes but our goals just weren't the right ones, and we had to change tact along the way."
"You know, it's a very difficult goal we set, and we really didn't think we'd achieve it. But we're heading in the right direction."
"Everyone else is suffering in this volatile environment. We're not doing as badly as some."
"I just know it worked. I know the area and I can see things changing."
signs of a constructive performance conversation
Your performance conversations are faring a little better than those above when you can hear a few comments like these being made (and listened to):
"Okay, so let's take a look at the measures we designed for this project and see what they're doing."
"A few people did complain about the change in our process, but when you look at the survey results, the majority of people have said they like it better than before."
"These measures are showing some improvement over the past few months, and we believe it's due to our new initiative."
"We intended for costs to reduce, but we just didn't seem to get that to happen. Maybe we should check that the project was implemented properly..."
"In hindsight, we set way too difficult a target without really knowing what it would take to reach it. And not reaching it caused some cynicism too."
"So it seems that we set some goals that were really outside our control to achieve, so let's focus on the parts we can still influence."
signs of a strong performance conversation
And great performance conversations show signs of people talking like this:
"Four of our project outcome measures are showing statistically significant improvement, and the other three are showing no significant change at all. The project lead measures suggest this is because our training is working, but we still haven't managed to make the system available to everyone."
"Just as our lead indicators suggested a few months ago, we are starting to see performance stabilise around our targeted level."
"The pilot areas where we introduced the new work procedure are consistently showing 23% higher productivity than in the areas where we are still using the old procedure."
"Yes we are getting higher satisfaction ratings, but even our competitors are too, and they haven't tried to improve anything. Correlation analysis shows it has more to do with recent media coverage in our industry than with our new incentive scheme."
"No, there is very little evidence to suggest this project is working. Costs haven't changed, and cycle time is still averaging around 10 days. It's time to hit the pause button, find out why it isn't working and either pull the pin or redesign the project."
"It was unfortunate that fuel prices rose so suddenly when we were trying to reduce costs, but we re-scoped the project to also find ways to reduce our mileage and dependence on fuel."
"So we just identified an important question we can't answer with the data we have. What information will help us answer this, and how can we get it?"
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