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You may also find yourself unwittingly but voluntarily conducting non-directed research. Go back to the beginning (my favorite place to start) and identify the root need. With the root question in hand, design your metric with the end in mind. Avoid the research trap and use your time wisely.

Embracing Your Organization's Uniqueness

The prince didn't know how else to explain it. It was love at first sight. She had captivated his whole being. And then she slipped away, leaving behind only her glass shoe.

“I must find her,” said the prince. “She is the one. With her by my side I can do anything, be anyone.”

“But sire,” responded the chancellor, “She's just a commoner. How can she alone make you more than you are?”

“I can't explain it, but I know it will happen. She will make me better.”

So, the prince sent the king's chancellor to scour the countryside for the mystery girl who stole his heart. The chancellor went from house to house and had each female of marrying age try on the glass shoe.

And it fit every girl's foot.

The chancellor was lost at what to do. So, he did what his father always told him, “When in doubt, follow orders.” He brought each and every maiden back to the castle.

“Sire,” he said, “I've brought you the women who fit the shoe.”

“Women?” The prince looked at him with widened eyes.

“Yes, sire.”

“How many?”

“All of them.”

“Very humorous,” said the prince. “How many are all of them?”

“No, sire. I don't jest. I brought all of them. All the eligible maidens in the kingdom fit into the shoe.”

“How is that possible?”

The chancellor chose his words carefully. “I believe it's called a one-size-fits-all.”

“How is it of any use, then?” wondered the prince.

“Well, it's the only type of shoe that we have.”

“True,” said the prince.

So the Prince became depressed and eventually banned all one-size-fits-all apparel in the kingdom. This made the tailors in the kingdom quite happy, but the manufacturing unions organized a revolution. They retooled shoes, socks, and T-shirts to make weapons. They easily overthrew the monarchy and established a free and open market.

While the prince learned that a one-size-fits-all tool for measuring something may not be meaningful, there are still many who seek this out. They want the one-size-fits-all metric. If you've followed along up to this point, you should realize that the only way someone else's metric will be meaningful to you is if you both have the same root question. Even then, for the data, measures, or information to be meaningful, you need to have defined the components the same way.

The only way someone else's metrics will work for you is if you have the same root question.

There is nothing wrong with your organization being unique. Organizations, like people, should embrace their uniqueness instead of trying to make everything a one-size-fits-all endeavor. This penchant for finding a single solution for problems actually causes more issues than it resolves. If you are designing a product like a new energy-saving lightbulb, you may well want it to fit most (if not all) lamps. But an organization is a complex living organism, and the problems it needs answered will be as unique as the problems each of us face in our lives.

Forcing a “one-size-fits-all” solution to your problems actually causes more issues than it resolves.

You may argue that we actually aren't unique and that we are alike in more ways than we are different. You may argue that people, and therefore organizations, which are made up of people, have problems that are more alike than different. While there are enough variables to ensure our issues are not identical, the root causes, and the root questions, are very common.

And I'd have to agree.

Unfortunately, this commonality doesn't help. It actually causes us to head off in wrong directions.

When you start a metrics program, you will be challenged by many to “not re-create