What’s the most important number?
The Change Question: What’s the most important number?
When it comes to measurement, I try to remember four things.
1. If that number going up or down doesn’t generate a response (stop something, start something, do more of something), why is it being measured?
2. No number is perfect. “The map is not the territory.” Trailing or lagging indicators are, by definition, about what’s already happened. Leading indicators often have a slightly flimsy link to the work that’s being done.
3. It’s helpful to know what “good enough” is, as well as “excellent.”
4. "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." (Goodhart’s Law)
I suspect many change programs have an excess of metrics, most of which aren’t important enough; and people don’t fret enough about the key number(s) that matters most.
It feels like (really) hard work, but important, to decide the most important number you’re measuring.
What, in other words, is the priority? (My friend Liane Davey, who’s coming on the pod soon, has a rant about the etymology of “priority,” which means “first in importance.” So prioritiES plural is an oxymoron.)
But, honestly, this is one of my weaker areas in change management. So, teach me please!
What am I missing, and what am I getting wrong?
What’s an example of a single, essential metric?
And who should I have on the podcast to teach me about really smart measurement for change management programs?
Pod Wisdom: This is WAY better than the “burning platform”
John Zeratsky, from the Change Signal episode "Stop Planning, Start Prototyping Change":
"Declare a good emergency. Be really clear with everybody that you are doing something different because it's important. We know that emergencies are powerful, right? We know that they work. They seem to create time where there is none. They seem to be able to magically shift people's priorities, their sense of clarity. So why don't we harness that for good?"
Listen to the full episode with John Zeratsky now
John Zeratsky is the author of Sprint: Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days and Click: How to Make What People Want: both Change Signal Top Shelf books.
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The Last Word
"Progress is not going in a straight line. It goes up and down, but it’s progress all the same."
~ Thasunda Duckett, CEO of TIAA
