{"id":633,"date":"2016-10-12T18:18:20","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T01:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b-spoke.net\/?p=633"},"modified":"2026-06-29T22:00:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T22:00:30","slug":"designing-internal-measures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/2016\/10\/12\/designing-internal-measures\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing Internal Measures"},"content":{"rendered":"
A Six Minute Read<\/h6>\n

Executives at a large industrial company were concerned with a rising injury rate, particularly among its contractors. After months of investigations and modelling, a five-point improvement plan was beta-tested at its most hazardous location. Over the following 18 months, dozens of internal Black Belts and external consultants introduced these initiatives across the entire corporation.<\/h3>\n

During the implementation, and in an unprecedented 48 months following (and – knock wood – still counting), there were no reports of significant injuries with contractors, and only one with an employee at an affected site \u2013 in an area outside the scope of the effort. By the most important measure, the program was a complete success: Workers went home to their families at the end of their shifts in the same condition that they left.<\/em><\/h3>\n

That said, the team was constantly stressed. When asked, \u201chow is the program doing?\u201d, all we could point to was an exceptional zero-harm rate. It was difficult to tie specific actions directly to a day-to-day improvement in the \u201csafety culture\u201d. We knew, overall, things were improving \u2013 but only because of the absence of the negative outcome.<\/em><\/h3>\n

When diagnosing issues for clients, there are two common complaints I hear among individuals. One is a lack of \"processes\"<\/a>timely, direct feedback<\/a> (not the lack of the annual performance review<\/a>, something very different); the other is a lack of quality inputs. (\u201cQuality inputs\u201d can range from physical inputs, such as raw materials or work-in-process, to intangible inputs \u2013 accurate data, met deadlines, availability of decision-makers at a meeting).<\/p>\n

These are both serious concerns, and both are caused by a swirling cocktail of larger-scale management missteps . On the face of it, these appear to be two very different dilemmas, but both can be relieved by attacking a single core issue: A poor measurement system.<\/p>\n

The lack of feedback is a felt need not because managers necessarily want<\/em> face-time with their bosses, but because they need to know and understand how well they are performing. Is the work they\u2019re doing contributing to the company\u2019s goals, or is it bureaucratic claptrap? Is it high quality, or a dog’s breakfast? Without a feedback mechanism, it can be impossible to know this, which creates both tension and that second problem.<\/p>\n

Not knowing if the work you are doing is good \u2013 or even good enough \u2013 increases the likelihood of passing on something that does not meet customers\u2019 (or colleague\u2019s) needs. In some cases, it may be too much of something \u2013 an overly detailed analysis when a quick summary would suffice \u2013 and in others, it may not be enough (think of the accountant who has to double-check standard cost on requisitions). And, sometimes, inputs are just wrong \u2013 as anyone who\u2019s ever had to \u201cadjust\u201d something to fit knows all too well.<\/p>\n

So how can better measurements help?<\/p>\n

Lagging Versus Leading Measures<\/h4>\n

Think about the team measuring the success of its safety initiative above \u2013 or of any project, where the chief measure of success comes after<\/em> implementation is complete. The metrics that are in place may be ideal indicators of success, but they are not predictors<\/em> of success. (When consultants drone on about \u201cleading\u201d and \u201clagging\u201d measures, this is what we are talking about.)<\/p>\n

A lagging measure only signifies what has already happened. That can be useful, but most of the time it\u2019s as helpful as a TV meteorologist reporting what today\u2019s high temperature was<\/u> (\u201cSee, Martha! I told<\/em> you I didn\u2019t need my sweater vest!\u201d).<\/p>\n

Leading measures are helpful because they either confirm that work in process is being done correctly, or they highlight concerns before getting passed on to someone else and become problems.<\/p>\n

The absolute measures of a pastry chef, for example, are the taste and texture of a buttercream cake; these are lagging indicators because they can\u2019t be checked until after the pie has baked and cooled. The risk here is obvious \u2013 if quality is found wanting, tremendous resources have been wasted. The ingredients, the chef\u2019s time \u2013 none of that can be \"index\"recovered. \u00a0To minimize that, she utilizes in-process<\/em> measures \u2013 testing the quality of the ingredients, putting a toothpick in the cake, keeping the light on in the oven, and so on \u2013 to both predict the success of the endeavor and to quickly identify any problems.<\/p>\n

By creating in-process measures, we gain additional benefits. If we take the time to \u201ccheck our work\u201d, we can easily see if we are performing well \u2013 i.e., instant, direct feedback. This minimizes \u2013 really, eliminates \u2013 the possibility of passing shoddy work on to our customers (internal or external). Looked at from the flip side, if our colleagues have methods to check the quality of their work, and adhere to those methods, the chance of us receiving poor-quality inputs drops, as well.<\/p>\n

Creating a Simple Measurement System<\/h4>\n

The work involved in creating in-process measures need not be complicated.<\/p>\n

First, identify specific deliverables<\/strong>. In our safety initiative, one of the major components was an improvement in the communication of hazards and risks before the job was even bid. We agreed that watching the long-term trends in this communication would be a bellwether.<\/em><\/p>\n

Next, collaborate<\/strong> with customers (internal or external) to identify and prioritize the key attributes<\/strong> they need. \u201cPriority\u201d is essential \u2013 find the select few that are the most critical variables. It can be easy to go overboard, so don\u2019t! According to the contractors who received these pre-job communications, there were two main components they most valued: Understanding <\/em>why the job needed doing, and knowing how \u201cfresh\u201d the risk and hazard profiles were.<\/em><\/p>\n

As a team we brainstormed \u2013 the third step \u2013 what would be the best indicators of success<\/strong> for those critical variables. To track the \u201cunderstanding the why\u201d, we created simple tallies around the inclusion of objectives in the communique; we also designed a \u201cfreshness indicator\u201d that measured the age of included risk analyses.<\/em><\/p>\n

The last part of a successful design is to set the target performance<\/strong>. Building off existing baselines is easiest. In our case, we were starting from scratch, so we found ourselves tweaking the goals early on.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"MichaelsCookiesWholesale.com\"
MichaelsCookiesWholesale.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To achieve the maximum benefit of the internal measurements, everyone involved needs to know what \u201cgood\u201d looks like \u2013 including how to recover when it\u2019s missed. This can take the form of control charts, annotated examples, poka-yoke boxes, or anything that allows the user to check the quality of his work before it moves onto the next stage.<\/p>\n

New measures don’t have to be complex, or even \u201cbrilliant\u201d. They do need to be simple, they need to indicate performance, and head off any problems before they become irreversible. If it is important, you should be able to describe the difference between \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cbad\u201d; and if you can describe the difference, you can find something about it you can measure and track.<\/p>\n

When we can objectively measure our own work before sharing it, the feedback gives us confidence and<\/em> improves the quality of our outputs. By ensuring that it meets our customers\u2019 requirements, we avoid being the subject of those \u201ceverything I get is crap\u201d complaints.<\/p>\n

Now, to fix the \u201cmy boss never gives me feedback\u201d problem\u2026<\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being able to check and track the quality of work before passing it on is a cornerstone of both continuous improvement efforts and ‘getting it right the first time’. Knowing the ‘leading indicators’ of success also saves a lot of time and heartache.<\/p>\n

Here are some things to consider when creating a method to measure success – before the work is complete. Continue reading Designing Internal Measures<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[26,36,49,64,67,69],"class_list":["post-633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-managing-process","tag-dashboards","tag-feedback","tag-measures","tag-project-management","tag-quality","tag-reporting"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/measures-design-featured1.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2460,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633\/revisions\/2460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}