Part 25 (1/2)

Standards and benchly interconnected Standards, froh today, are invaluable for providing a means for interoperability Standards in the industrial world allow you to use a light bulb that you bought at Walner furniture store Standards allow you to get gas for your car froas puredients label on a can of soup to the technology that allows you to tune your radio, standards give consistency and interoperability for manufacturers, distributors, builders, and custo industry, performance measures are more akin to an art than a science The use of standards for hoe uable What need is there? If our questions are unique, and thus our answers are unique, why do we need standards for ourmeasures to answer your specific questions, I have trouble taking up the other side of the debate Why indeed?

I would love to have standards for how you develop ets, for example Or for the definition of the data owner But, standards for performance measures as a whole? Why?

Before I answer this question, let's look at benchmarks and why I think the two are interrelated

Benchful Coful co expectations, you usually want to knoell you perforainst your peers If you're ambitious, you'll want to knoell you perform compared to the best-the best in your industry, the best in your country and, perhaps if you're really ambitious, the best in the world

Bench and a curse

Bench a ”line in the sand” You can establish a baseline from your own measures so that you can compare your present perforoal is to improve

Establish Baselines

One ofthem establish a baseline; mostly because it forces them to put theI aloals to improve effectiveness, improve efficiency, improve productivity, or improve customer satisfaction

”Ioal statement You have to qualify it with more information-as in ”how e? By a certain number?

My favorite recollection of the poor use of an ”i organizational development expertise to the council I was teamed with a retired police officer, a successful business owner, a nurse, our priest, and a retired grandoal? Improve membershi+p in the church I wasn't perturbed because I had seen this type of goal (increase, decrease, etc) many times before

I said, ”Improve membershi+p-by how much?”

”What do you mean?” asked the ex-police officer

”I oal to improve membershi+p, hoe know that we achieved it?”

The business owner said, ”Oh, you're trying to get us to set a goal”

I countered, ”I thought that was the intention-to cooals for the year?”

”Yes,” said the business owner, ”but you're trying to set us up for failure We'll set a number and if we don't reach it, ill have failed”

Now I sat in stunned silence I may have actually opened and closed my mouth once or twice ”Uh Well Would you be happy with just one ?”

”Sure,” said the nurse

”Anything ravy!” said the ex-police officer

I turned to the priest, still in shock ”You'll feel we've achieved this goal if we add just one family?”

He shook his head no As the leader of the teaht of a CEO

”How many families join each year now?” I asked ”Two or three a year,” the priest answered

”So if we do nothing, we'd achieve this goal?”

He nodded in the affirmative

We eventually worked out a reasonable andany changes The purpose of the goal was to build up the parish The purpose of the metric was to see if our efforts were successful We had plans, ideas, and activities scheduled for the purpose of bringing in newback parishi+oners who had fallen away We needed to (1) set a goal to focus our efforts and ideas; and (2) set measures to tell us orked and what didn't

We also needed a benchmark We could not deter the desired result if we didn't know the norroup” or value You have to knohat you get if you do nothing different Then, when you do new things in neays, you can at least assue to the outcoes that you can't determine what exactly worked or what exactly didn't work, you at least knohether the overall effort(s) worked

So, benchmarks basically allow you to knohere you are and, therefore, where you end up

A bench line