When we want people to understand and adopt a new idea, often we rush in, guns blazing, and overwhelm them with too much "how to", too soon. We might be excited about the new idea, but they will be wary. Another band wagon, another fad, another distraction from their "real work". So we need a gentler approach that starts from where they are, not where we are.

Mission statements really ought to state the ultimate purpose of an organisation - its desired impact on its customers. To know if an organisation is fulfilling its mission (and isn't that important to know?), it needs to be measured. But most mission statements are immeasurable.

In PuMP we use a tool called the Measurability Tests to find out, and fix, the measurability of goals. If a goal fails the Measurability Tests, it cannot be meaningfully measured. That's rework. Wouldn't it be better if we write our goals measurably in the first place?

Nijntje, or Miffy as she is known in English-speaking countries, is the little rabbit character who is drawn with only a few simple lines and primary colours. Yet she's meaningfully recognisable as a little rabbit. She doesn't need any more detail to be meaningful. But any less detail and she looks incomplete. Goals that are meaningfully measurable are just like Nijntje.

Mark Hocknell, PuMP Consultant, has worked in the area of performance measurement for about 10 years now. Prior to that, Mark's 15 years in senior management gave him plenty of experience as a user of measures, metrics, statistics, data, counts and numbers of all kinds. As business leaders, we know it's useful to inform our decis...

Culture is a word we use to describe the interplay of values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours within a group of people. In organisations, workplace culture is one of the hardest things to measure. But we want to measure it, because we want to influence it.

Guest author Martin Klubeck, author of Metrics: How to Improve Key Business Results, warns us about 3 mistakes with metrics that stem from too strong a focus on the data.

Whether or not you're using the PuMP Measure Design technique to design your measures, you'll do yourself a favour to note these common traps people fall into when designing their measures. Avoid them!

Robert D. Behn is a lecturer at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a passionate advocate for public sector performance. His regular Performance Leadership Report is always succinct and salient. His definition of performance management, versus performance measurement, clearly puts the responsibility on leade...

If your KPIs suck, even though you've long wished for better ones, it's likely that something is holding you back. That 'something' could be a very good reason, or it could simply be an excuse that you're mistaking for a reason.