Measurement: The Boredom of 100%

William Aaron, our Chief of Consulting Services and Innovation, shares the following -

If you have a performance measure that is always 100%, why are you still measuring it?

I worked with a team once that wanted to measure its success by how often it met a legally mandated deadline. Of course, the deadline was always met (it being a law and all), so the team would always be 100% perfectly successful ... right?

A measure that is always 100% cannot, by definition, measure anything that's too hard to do. Chances are pretty good that you're measuring a process over which you exert pretty complete control. It's probably about compliance. It's very unlikely to be about your customers.

And it's not going to give you any information about how you can make things better, more effective, more efficient.

If your measure always produces a perfect result, change it. Raise the bar. Focus on a more challenging - and important - result. Send a clear message to your organization, your team, your co-workers.

Performance measurement can improve results. Don't let it be 100% perfectly boring.