Avoiding business jargon helps to set goals that can be achieved and measured. That's the topic of this Harvard ManageMentor video with Stacey Barr.

Surveys are one of the common methods we use in business to gather data. We have customer surveys, employee surveys, corporate image surveys, and surveys just about anytime we want to collect data from people. And often you'll see these surveys listed in the KPI column in the business plan. BIG MISTAKE! Here's why:

Strategy maps, a la the Balanced Scorecard, are the most commonly used visual representation of strategy on a single page. But are they the only way to visualise a measurable strategy? (more…)

I'm teaching the Melbourne PuMP Blueprint Workshop this week, and today's content included how to make your goals more measurable. One of the lovely participants in the workshop (thanks Steve!) showed me this video presented by Gerard Braud, at the International Association of Business Communicators 2012 World Conference: "

Questions like "Why did you choose that KPI?" and "Why didn't you choose this KPI?" and "What were we thinking?!" shouldn't be answered with "Um, I dunno!"

Justine G. asks: "How do you identify good KPIs for lofty strategic goals, like 'improve the health of citizens'?" (more…)

Lots of strategic plans and operational plans are full of motherhood goals, vague strategies and - if they are even considered at all - measures or KPIs that don't track anything useful. No wonder these plans sit on shelves and gather dust.

One of the worst problems that makes strategic outcomes hard to measure is the excessive use of 'weasely' language. And you'll know what I mean if your strategy is full of words like efficiency, productivity, sustainability, or even performance outcomes.

Milestones are commonly used as KPIs or performance measures. But they are not performance measures because they fail a few essential tests of what makes a meaningful performance measure.

M William (Bill) Sermons, Director of the Alliance’s Homelessness Research Institute, specializes in cross-disciplinary research and program evaluation. As Director of the Homelessness Research Institute, he is responsible for advancing the Institute’s aim of building and disseminating knowledge that informs policy and practice.