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Do the Research

Be ready to do the research. You can even have a positive (hopeful) attitude! You never know, you may be the one organization that proves everything I've said wrong. You may be the exception to the rule.

The first thing to research is to identify your peers and competitors and find out if they have any metrics. You'll want to make sure the metrics they have (if any) are related to what you need (if you've been allowed to do any groundwork). Identify the areas you want examples for. If you succeeded in building as much of your development plan as possible, you will be able to better identify what you'd like to compare.

Deal with Failure

Don't be surprised if you find that you are unique. Or that the organizations you believe are your perfect match either have no metrics or are unwilling to share what they do have. You may very well be ahead of the curve. Your needs may be unique. If so, you have to tell your leadership that you have failed.

Of course, you did not actually fail. You were tasked to find examples. A legitimate result of research has to be that the hypothesis that you are addressing may be proven false.

Realize that your leadership may consider you to have failed. While they asked you to find out if any metrics already exist, what they really wanted was for you to find a match so…

They wouldn't have to trust you to know what you were doing

They'd have a warm fuzzy because someone else was already using them

It would mean less work on everyone's part (including you); less cost, less time, and less effort

Deal with Success

I expect you won't find an exact match, and suggest that you should be surprised if you do. It's rare. Be thankful if you also get that organization to freely share what they have and how to replicate it. Be even more thankful if they are willing to participate with you in a benchmarking effort so that you both can benefit from the metrics. Even if this miracle occurs, realize it won't be for every metric.

Expect that even if you find some viable comparisons

That they won't be for every root question

The other organization may not be willing to share

The other organization may not have any of the rigors I've recommended to accompany its information (no documentation or development plan)

Your exact match may not have the same definitions surrounding the data, measures, information, or metric. This means that you will need the raw data used to build the metric. Unfortunately, this increases the likelihood that the other organization will not want to share.

The other organizations will want something in return—even if it's just to see your raw data. Your leadership may not be willing to share.

Expect that your leadership's reactions to your research will not make you feel successful. Chances are they will decide that the examples you found are not a good match or simply not good enough (this may be a good thing —but after the joy you'll feel in finding them, you may forget that I wanted you to embrace your uniqueness).

Your leadership may feel you failed, especially if you have nothing to show for the effort. If that were the end of the tasking, you could count your blessings. Most likely though, your leadership will want you to try again. They may even provide you with their peers' contact information.

Another possibility is they may decide to bring in outside help, because they are convinced that you didn't look in the right places, didn't ask the right people, or just didn't understand what they wanted.

Is It Really That Bleak?

Yes, I painted a pretty bleak picture. And I could tell you that from my experience that I was actually being very realistic, but I could have perhaps let you down with a little more compassion.

I don't agree.

In the case of embracing your organization's uniqueness I again feel it necessary to give you “tough love” rather than give you the flowery picture. You have to know what you may encounter so you can be prepared for it and react properly.

The martial arts teach that we should be like water. This