Metrics_ How to Improve Key Business Results - Martin Klubeck [5]
What You’ll Find Inside
Having a common language for metrics and its components is an essential foundation for the conversation we'll engage in throughout this book. While putting this book together, and while thinking about all of the tools you can use to make your analysis and publishing of metrics easier, it struck me that there is another important distinction between metrics and other tools for improvement. Besides the definitions of data, measures, information, and metrics, I want to share another view of what I believe metrics are.
First and foremost, for me, metrics are in and of themselves tools for improvement. Even when using metrics to keep track of progress or predict future trends, metrics should be seen as a means for improvement. But that’s not enough to distinguish it from a mass of other tools out there. I’ve used many tools to develop improvement programs or to solve organizational problems. Total Quality Management, the Capability Maturity Model, Lean, and Lean Six Sigma are a few. Each of these improvement methodologies also uses data and measures. Six Sigma uses data throughout its processes, not only to measure improvement but to determine what to improve. There are also measures of success and goal attainment. There are even measures which turn ordinary wishes into SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound) goals.
Many of the tools designed around metrics are for statistical analysis. These powerful tools can be used to determine relationships between different data, causal relationships, and even determine the accuracy of data.
But “metrics,” for me, are much more and in some ways a bit less than a statistical analysis tool.
Metrics are not a statistician’s dream or an analyst’s favorite tool. The school of statistical analysis is much larger and deeper than I plan on digging. A common disclaimer I offer when teaching on metrics is that I am not a statistician, nor will the course include statistics. In these ways, metrics are a bit less.
But metrics are in many ways much more than statistics. They are a means of telling stories, and of providing valuable insights. Metrics are a tool for pointing out the correct direction to take when at a cross-roads—a cross-roads between one improvement effort and another.
Metrics, for me, are the cornerstone of an organizational development program and/or a tool for answering the most important organizational questions.
It is these minor distinctions between metrics and other measurement-based tools for improvement that make this book a necessity. There are courses on statistics (one of my colleagues came to metrics by way of being a statistician), books on various analytical tools, and software tools developed for this purpose (SPSS, MiniTab, and Sigma XL, to name three). But there is little written (well) or taught about the use of metrics. This deficiency has been partially addressed by Kaplan and Norton with their Balanced Scorecard methodology and by Dr. Dean Spitzer’s book Transforming Performance Measurement (AMACOM, 2007). I intend to take their efforts to their logical and necessary next step—making the design, creation, and use of metrics practical for anyone.
Metrics will make it possible for you to use data, measures, and information to improve your organization and lead to the key business results you need to be a success.
I hope this book helps you to develop metrics that in turn help you improve your organization. Regardless of the size or mission of your organization, metrics can be a powerful tool for improvement, and this book will make metrics as simple as possible.
Establishing A Common Language
Data, and Measures, and Information, OH MY!
It is important to establish a simple, easy-to-understand language so that everyone, regardless of their experience