Know your Metrics

If you ask your fellow employees which metrics drive the business, would they know? Would they care? I believe their jobs should depend on them caring, though measuring that would be difficult. If they are unwilling to do their part, perhaps they should “help” some other company. Everyone should be held personally accountable to understand what helps drive the business and how they can help. If they knew what the metrics are, how could it change their behavior (in a positive way)?

From an executive level, I can only imagine every CEO (from Joe Nigro to Mike Cottmeyer) start by thinking about these metrics:

I hope executive management will help employees understand the metrics that drive the business and why they are important. I hope the employees will internalize these metrics and consider ways to help the company increase revenues, widen margins, or control costs.

From a productivity level, be it manufacturing or software development, I think the staff (and the executives) need to understand (and improve) the system of delivery. To this, if executive management doesn’t know these productivity numbers, then how can they know when they are making unreasonable requests of the system? A system of delivery in a black box and executives in an ivory tower are not a good combination. A dissatisfied staff can put your company at serious risk, while on the other hand, a satisfied and productive staff can help drive the business.

I hope everyone will think of ways to shortening cycle and lead times while maintaining or increasing throughput. If maximum utilization is how you make the greatest topline revenue, how do you reach that utilization level without breaking your people or machinery?

From an individual level, I believe we are truly personally accountable. Let’s ask the first two questions from this post again. Which metrics drive the business? What behaviors do they encourage?

I hope individuals will be honest about what they think they can do in a given period of time. I hope they will be honest with their coworkers and with management if they don’t think they can keep a commitment.

What behaviors do you think metrics encourage?

VP of ALM Platforms; Author of Zombie Project Management; Advisor on Productivity and Tools; Improver of things; Often angry about something or drinking coffee.

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