CHAPTER 2 - What to measure

From the book organisational-abilities

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What should we measure?

“Measurement is fabulous. Unless you’re busy measuring what’s easy to measure as opposed to what’s important.”[1]
- Seth Godin (Author and entrepreneur)

In the previous chapter we saw the difference between leading and lagging indicators, and what can happen if you measure something that’s only loosely aligned to your overall goals. You’d be surprised at how many leaders use other people’s metrics to assess how things are going, even when they provide little information on whether business results are being achieved or values acted upon. I’ve witnessed managers obsessing over teams’ velocity[2] whilst remaining ignorant of whether it bore any relation to the business outcomes (it didn’t). But, it’s easy to measure and other teams use it, so they latched onto it.

Of course, similar organisations may be looking to achieve the same thing, and in those cases metrics may be alike. But that’s the wrong place to start. A measurement should provide information that helps you decide what to do next. It needs to take you in the direction of your goals and values. The weaker the relationship between what you’re measuring and what you actually want to achieve, the less useful that information is. Using it to decide on what to do next could mean setting off on the wrong path.

This book is for organisations taking on progressive values, including but not limited to those shared by the Agile movement. If you’re moving in that direction, then you’ll need build the following organisation abilities.

The ability to:

1. ORIENT. Have a clear view of progress towards outcomes, so that measures can be taken to support teams to correct or change course.
2. RESPOND. React and adapt to changing requirements, so that a firm can better compete in a complex and changing environment.
3. COMMUNICATE. Creating an environment where individuals value one another and can be open, so that problems are exposed early and the creativity and potential of people can be leveraged.
4. LEARN. To cultivate a culture of reflection and continuous improvement throughout the organisation. Across people, process and product.

Building and improving these abilities isn’t easy but it will set you up for the best possible chance of success.

[1] Godin, Seth. ‘Measuring without Measuring’. Seth’s Blog (blog), 1 June 2013.

[2] Velocity is a metric used by some Scrum teams: the number of ‘story points’ completed within a sprint. More on this later.

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