Who Needs Performance Measurement Skills In Your Organisation?

It's obvious to most people why people whoBusiness Analysts usually have fairly good
work in the strategy office, or even in quality orquantitative skills, but they need to understand
process improvement roles, need to have somethe organisation's chosen performance
degree of performance measurement skill. Butmeasurement methodology because often they're
that's not sufficient if your goal is to have avery much involved in the data collection, analysis
consistent approach to selecting performanceand reporting of performance measures. It's
measures throughout the organisation that keepimportant that they have skills in clearly defining
everyone focused on what really matters inand implementing measures, and presenting them
achieving the organisation's strategy.to support valid interpretation.
Most organisations do quite a few performanceQuality or Process Improvement Officers will no
measurement activities poorly, without evendoubt have learned more about performance
knowing. They look for measures before they'remeasurement than most people, because of the
clear enough about the performance resultsnature of their training which is heavily
worth measuring. They brainstorm measures ormeasurement based. But they need to
just measure the easy stuff. They use sillyunderstand the organisation's chosen performance
dashboard dials and gauges instead of meaningfulmeasurement methodology and how to apply it in
time series displays. They knee-jerk react whentheir work of measuring and improving the
this month's performance differs to last month.operational processes throughout the organisation.
And outsourcing performance measurement isn'tBusiness Intelligence Officers absolutely need to
the solution, because you'll never (and I meanhave skills in performance measurement, but the
NEVER) get people to have ownership and buy-inemphasis for them as the developers of
and deep understanding of what really matters toperformance reports and dashboards, is on
the performance of the organisation.displaying measures in a way that encourages
The performance measurement skills that arevalid interpretation. They'll benefit from a basic
needed are not part of the typical managementawareness of the overall performance
and workplace training on offer, so it's not safe tomeasurement process, too. It's so much easier to
assume people already know what they're doingappreciate what you're doing when you know the
when it comes to measuring.bigger picture.
So... Who needs performance measurement skills,Everyone else needs performance measurement
what skills exactly, and why?skills too, but these will be at a more basic
Executives need skills in making strategyawareness level. They need to understand the
measurable, designing meaningful measures,organisation's chosen performance measurement
interpreting those measures validly and using themmethodology, and how to use performance
to drive strategy achievement. Executives aren'tmeasures to keep monitoring and improving the
going to be involved in data collection andresults of their work and the impact on the
reporting, so they can do without these skills.organisation's strategy. Some staff will be involved
Managers need those same skills, but also anin data collection and reporting, and should
appreciation of what it takes to bringtherefore have specific skills in sampling, form
performance measures to life - the data collectiondesign, data collection process design, and report
and reporting - is useful.design too.
Strategic Planning Officers and PerformanceTAKING ACTION:
Measurement Officers need skills in all the stepsWho needs better performance measurement
of the performance measurement process:skills in YOUR organisation? Which approaches to
making strategy measurable, designing meaningfulget these skills do you think will suit them best?
measures, defining and implementing theOne option to consider is your own in-house,
measures, designing good performance reportstailored Performance Measure Blueprint Workshop,
and dashboards (not necessarily building them!),which will give your colleagues a great opportunity
interpreting those measures validly and usingto learn a consistent performance measurement
measures to improve performance. And theyapproach, and start using it immediately to
need to have quite advanced skills because they'lldevelop more meaningful measures in support of
often be facilitating teams throughout theyour organisation's strategic direction.
organisation to do each of these steps.