Measuring performance carries a stigma of being boring, threatening, tedious and difficult to do in a meaningful way. Often these perceptions can be enough to stop people from measuring, and even the clichés like "you can't manage what you don't measure" just don't have enough bite to get people to do it.
If you, or any of your colleagues, need some convincing about the benefits of measuring performance, that it is indeed worth the effort, consider these 13 compelling reasons as you think about one of the goals you've struggled to achieve up to now.
Reason #1: make your goals tangible and more real
Too many people have goals that are vague, motherhood statements that mean 19 different things to 7 different people. How can anyone possibly feel compelled by, or passionate about working toward a goal they cannot see in detail in their mind's eye?
Reason #2: achieve your goals faster
Feedback is the absolute essential process that systems of all kinds - airplanes, oak trees and the human body - use to keep functioning properly. Without feedback that is regular and relevant to your goals, you have no reason to expect to achieve the goal. The more regular and relevant feedback your measures give you, the faster you can act to correct your course toward your goals.
Reason #3: achieve your goals with less effort and waste
You could do the things to pursue your goal that you want to do, that you feel you should do, that others have done, or that seem like a good idea to do. But you will very likely waste effort because you don't know what is working and how much it is working without measures to pinpoint the real results of your actions.
Reason #4: keep your success far from the hands of chance, luck and superstition
Measures put you in a state of knowing what otherwise you would have guessed, assumed or simply never even considered about the progress toward your goals. Without measures, your goals are at the mercy of fear, hope, arrogance, ignorance, the latest fad, impractical theory, unchallenged assumptions and limiting beliefs.
Reason #5: where attention goes, energy flows
Earl Nightingale said decades ago, "you become what you think about". You cannot make real anything you are not giving your attention to through a very frequent routine. Having measures that you regularly monitor helps to keep your attention on the goals you want to make real (and off the things you don't want to make real).
Reason #6: find the points of highest leverage to achieve your goals
When you measure your goals, and see patterns in those measures like shifts or trends, you naturally ask why? And asking why is how you find the root causes of the results you're getting right now. Fixing the root causes (rather than treating the symptoms) gives you faster and bigger influence over reaching your goals.
Reason #7: know without question when your goals are truly achieved
Licking your finger and holding it up to the wind is not going to tell you if your goals have been achieved. Neither will the opinions of other people or your own, conveniently collected anecdotes or even other tenuously related existing measures. Measure your goal directly and deliberately, and never be in doubt as to whether or not (or how much so far) you've achieved it.
Reason #8: forecast future success objectively
Good measures will reveal to you patterns that have occurred in the past and in what ways these patterns are associated with various events, actions or circumstances. So what happens in the future becomes easier to estimate, when you plan how to influence future events, actions or circumstances (or not influence them).
Reason #9: prioritise your strengths and weaknesses
Who's got time to do it all? There will always be more opportunities, more problems, more ideas than we ever have time or energy to give to. Measures help us objectively sift out the strengths most valuable to exploit, and the weaknesses most worthwhile to improve on.
Reason #10: fail less often, and learn more when you do
Each goal your strive for, you will either achieve or not. When you don't achieve a goal, measures help you learn and understand why, so you have more wisdom in striving for future goals. And of course, measures also help you understand why you did achieve the goals you succeeded at.
Reason #11: take calculated risks, not reckless decisions
You can't really make a business successful without investing resources like time and money, and therefore you face the risk of losing these investments or not getting the return that would make the investment worthwhile. Measures help you choose the investments that will support your goals, by quantifying the return that would make the investment worthwhile.
Reason #12: learn faster through systematic testing
Because good measures of your goals give you regular and concrete feedback, you have the opportunity to test various solutions to achieve your goals. It helps you learn quickly what works and what doesn't, so you can do more of what does work and less of what doesn't.
Reason #13: find your core capability, your niche strength
Since measures can tell you what your business is good at, they will also tell you what you're exceptionally good at too. They can help you find what your biggest strength is, that possibly sets your business apart from competitors. Measured results are very convincing, so it's easier to market that niche strength to your advantage.
