#77 Stop Measuring What You CAN Control

Yes, you did read that title correctly. No, it isn't a typing error. Yes, it does go against everything you've been told about performance measures.

But, if you truly want performance measures (or metrics, if that's what you call them) to really make a difference to your business or organisation, you have to STOP measuring what you can control!

You're going to get far more improvement, far more learning, much faster progress toward your goals if you start measuring the results outside your complete control, the results you only have some INFLUENCE over. Here are 3 reasons why.

Reason 1: What you can completely control is trivial.

What do you really have complete control over? To a great degree, you can control what you think about it. To a lesser degree, you can control what you do and how you do it.

About these things, no-one really cares. Changing these things makes little difference to results that are bigger than yourself. What you can completely control is inside the boundaries of your comfort zone and what you already know, so any change is only incremental and small.

The important stuff is important BECAUSE it's outside our circle of control.

Reason 2: Performance is more than just personal.

Improving what you have complete control over reduces down to improving your own skills and knowledge and competence. In business, performance is about much more than that. Everyone having more skill, more knowledge, and more competence does not guarantee business success.

Performance that matters is mostly about the business results (like profit, stakeholder value, customer loyalty) and the processes that produce these results for the business (like sales, customer support, recruitment). And no one person has complete control over any of these. It's a team effort.

Reason 3: You are creative enough to stretch beyond control.

If you never stand face to face with a result you are passionate about but feel you can't control it, and ask yourself the question "how can I make this possible?" then you are denying your innate creativity.

Why not at least ask this question of one important result outside your control? How can you make it possible? How have others made similar results possible? What ideas do others have for making it possible?

Another implication: reward people for influencing, not just for achieving.
One of the main reasons so many people feel compelled to measure what is in their control is the fear of personal loss if they don't achieve their measures' targets. So they choose easy measures that have very easily attainable targets. This is just jumping through performance hoops, and not about the true purpose of performance measures (to improve important performance results).

So what if you could start rewarding people for how much they try to influence results that aren't inside their control, even if they don't get all the way to the target?