Performance Metrics: Isolation or Inter-relation?

Traditional science and research has been heavily based on studying independent factors or variables.  However, as we look around in organizations and programs across sectors, it is obvious that there are no such things as purely independent variables.  In fact, all variables are interdependent, and as organizational become more sophisticated, the concept of single cause-and-effect relationships seem further and further from reality.

Understanding the interdependency of factors that impact human, program, and organizational performance requires a shift from pure analysis to synthesis.  Analysis consists of taking apart what we want to understand in order to explain behavior of the separated parts and extrapolate an explanation to the whole.  On the other hand, synthesis consists of looking at system components and their interdependencies in order to understand their integrated impact on the whole.

In other words, we must look at the entire performance system and understand that any impact observed is rarely ever attributable to one solution or one cause alone.  Likewise, actions and solutions often impact more than one indicator, and in different ways.  It is imperative to measure, understand, communicate, and improve the whole picture in order to competently manage performance.

Performance metrics, also referred to as performance indicators, are specific and concrete gauges of a result, process, or activity that allows us to make complex systems palpable and manageable. Much as the gauges on your car’s dashboard provide a synopsis of its performance, performance indicators provide organizations with the essential information for making decisions. These indicators become the data points tracked both now and into the future (in fact, continuously), that produce the data, and in turn feedback, used to make decisions regarding specific actions for improvement.

Successfully using the data as feedback then depends on how well feedback is provided to, and perceived by, those responsible for improving performance.  If feedback is not perceived as useful, and performance improvement routines are not specified as part of a dashboard, they will provide limited support to your information users, and might in fact even negative impact performance.  With a clear performance indicator map, we can identify what type of feedback will be useful, and what performance improvement actions should be implemented today when a given trend is detected for any set of indicators.  The quality of today’s feedback and actions will have a direct impact on the results we expect tomorrow.