Hey, happy Monday!
It seems that the Note from last Monday, the one that contained a long list of KPIs divided by team (the most important ones) helped so many get their numbers in order or at least have that clarity to start, to move from ” I don’t know what to measure” to “I start with these.”
From the feedback I received I realized that not everyone found their number in the list I made. That’s normal, the list was really long and I had to cut out a lot of things. But this gave me an opportunity to reflect….
How about we take it from here?
Valentina P., writes to me…
“Dealing with engagement, I wonder: with what KPIs do you measure people’s ‘mood’?”
Gee, good question! However, I asked her if she had time to get in a brief call to help me better understand the problem so I could give her a more precise answer. It hasn’t happened yet but I don’t want her question to go unanswered because I think it is important for others and contains the seed of something deeper.
Meanwhile, I want to make it clear right away that I do not have a number to measure mood. And I can anticipate that I have not invested time in identifying this number because I don’t think it is the right thing to measure.
When you ask one person “How are you doing?” the other person always replies “Fine,” and this means 2 things: the person asking the question has no interest in knowing how the other person really feels, and the person answering has no desire to explain. “How’s it going?””Good,” party over, let’s start the meeting that’s better.
It’s not even enough to measure the smilies in HR software to know that “the kids are okay.” 100% 😀 0% 😐 0% 🤮
Of course, everyone responds with a happy face no one wants to spend the next half hour explaining what is wrong with someone who is probably the cause of it.
On the landing page then read “Our clients have 100% happiness success score. Start the free trial today.”
Everything can be measured.
Really anything.
The only thing that matters is to define precisely the purpose of what you are doing.
If I wanted to improve my health one of the results I should achieve is definitely to get closer to my goal weight. Among the many activities available, I could choose running as the sport of choice to improve my metabolism, burn more calories than I take in, and increase my fitness.
As I wrote, a very long list of numbers that I could keep in mind unfolded before my eyes: here are some examples.
- My weight primarily though not the most important
- Blood pressure and resting heart rates
- Average beats in training
- The calories I assimilate
- The average calories burned per session
- The distance traveled in each session
- The average slope of each session
- The number of workouts per week
- The average duration of each workout
- The number of steps per session
- The height difference
- The height above sea level
As soon as I decide to run I leave behind a huge amount of data.
Some are in the app connected to my smartwatch. Some are just in my scale, some are in my plate….
The sense I make of these data depends on a single question.
What does it mean for me to return to improve my fitness?
Assuming you are interested, and for the sole purpose of giving an example, for me improving my fitness means having a more efficient body, and so I measure in order:
- The duration of my session (which has to reduce because I always do the same route, this means I was faster)
- My average beats per session (which must decrease because for the same amount of uphill and downhill, and for the same amount of time, my body is more trained)
Enough, just two numbers. The rest I don’t care about.
Even though I could measure them and my data are all over the place I have no interest in measuring all the other KPIs. But looking only at these two numbers I can decide to eat less or better, incorporate a yoga session if I feel my legs are tied up… basically I can make most of the decisions related to achieving my goal and my own definition of success.
The case of Valentina
Back to Valentina who asked. “Dealing with engagement, I wonder what KPIs do you use to measure people’s ‘mood’?”
I understood that he deals with “internal communication.”
That said, I’m not sure that mood is really one of the KPIs to be tracked.
Rather, I would like to ask you how you measure the success of the projects you are working on.
For example, if he were working on a corporate blog dedicated to employees, I would first ask what percentage of employees
- Reads posts
- Of these how many read it all
- Of these how many comment
- Of these how many positively
- And how many negatively
For example, if he were working on a series of corporate events, I would ask myself.
- How many employees were invited
- How many came to the event
- How many actively participated (questions, comments, interactions, workshops)
But that would be the basis.
What is really important for Valentina is to understand to which strategic goal her activities are aligned.
Reduce turnover? Increase employee satisfaction? Increase referral rate to hire talent? What is important right now?
How to measure anything in 3 steps
Here are a few basic steps for measuring anything. I hope they will be useful in your next KPI meeting or if you are thinking of launching, or improving, your next round of OKRs.
Step 1. Define the problem and how you define success
Write down exactly what the problem is that the project helps solve. What happens if everything goes well?
Alberto Savoia, Engineering Director and Innovation Agitator at Google, and father of Pretotyping defines success in this trivially simple form.
“Success is when results exceed expectations.” -Albert Savoy
Step 2. Identify the numbers that will help you make decisions
Make a list of all the numbers your business generates, even without your knowledge. Every action you take online leaves an indelible trace in some database.
Set a 5-minute timer and make a list, as long as possible.
Afterwards delete all numbers that are not under your control and those that are useless to control.
Use my example of running or read this note that talks about Leading and Lagging metrics
Step 3. Create the habit of measuring and making decisions
Include the link to the spreadsheet in which the metrics are tracked in the description of each meeting and don’t forget to update and look at it together. Looking at the numbers and improving them is a habit; no coach can teach it.
You should have everything, in case you can contact me here.
Good work!
Let us hear from you..
👋 Anthony
