Metrics_ How to Improve Key Business Results - Martin Klubeck [126]
Consensus is required for success. Publishing a standard does not make it effective. You must have the majority of organizations (in your industry) using the standard to make it useful. Since you need high participation in the use of the standards, it logically follows that you should involve as many of the target audience in the creation of the standard as possible
I offer that the consortium structure is the best bet for creating standards for performance measures. The consortium creates, evaluates, reviews, and manages standards for an industry. The problem may be that the “industry” in this case is hard to define. Of course, if you do as I suggested and find a tighter definition of the target audience, you can make it happen. But, looking at performance measurement as an industry is obviously too large. So, as a performance measurement expert, you'll have to define your “industry” to build a consortium. If you have some standards for performance measurement to reference, you are ahead of the game.
Recap
Standards are tools that allow for interoperability. In the case of performance measures, standards allow for comparison between organizations.
Benchmarks are either the starting line (baseline) for your improvement efforts or a goal for you to achieve. As a baseline, it helps you determine how far you have to progress to achieve your goals, how well you're getting there, and how far you have come. As a goal, it represents how good you want to become—“as good as Company A” or “better than the average.”
To have real external benchmarks, you must have standards that are in agreement among the organizations you choose to compare to.
If you can find or develop standards for your performance measures, and your peers agree to them, you can compare measures.
START YOUR OWN CONSORTIUM
Depending on your industry, there may be little to no standards for performance metrics. If you lack standards, you will also lack the ability to benchmark against your competitors or peers. Creating a consortium for developing, publishing, and using standards for your industry is a feasible answer to this need. I created the Consortium for the Establishment of Information Technology Performance Standards (CEITPS) in 2009 to address the lack of standards for performance measures in Higher Education IT. This effort has been more difficult than I anticipated.
The population I have been working with—metrics analysts in peer institutions—all agree that the ability to compare performance metrics is critical to organizational leaders' acceptance of metrics. They also readily agree that this is nearly impossible without standards for the measures that make up the metrics.
I'm not sure if the difficulty in getting anyone to draft standards is a result of a low priority for measures comparison or a fear of the future environment if standards are created and adopted. In some situations, standards can be “enforced”—especially if there are governing bodies with power to do so. If you are like most us, you'll have to build consensus, communicate the standards, market them, and then hope for adoption. There is a real reason to fear your own success in this endeavor. If you succeed and have standards adopted in your industry, you will then be asked to follow through with allowing comparison of your organization's performance with your peers. No excuses, no subjective “feelings” of how good you really are. You'll have real values to compare against. While most metric analysts won't “fear” this situation, many organizational leaders may.
I've had so little success in getting peer assistance in the development of standards (although the CEITPS has a healthy membership) that I have turned to alternative methods for drafting standards. At the next national conference, where