Instead of implementing our change initiatives as long, drawn-out projects, we can run them as a series of iterations. Iterating our way toward a closed performance gap is going to be faster than trying to close that gap with a single big solution.

They will never admit it out loud, or even to themselves, but many leaders are scared of KPIs. And it's for the same reasons most people are scared of KPIs. (more…)

With KPIs, comes transparency. But because most people fear that measures will be used to judge or compare, it's hard to get transparency to work. (more…)

If your performance culture isn't very strong, if people just aren't into measuring and improving, you might think your organisation isn't yet ready for developing better KPIs. But the opposite is actually true: your organisation needs better KPIs, right now.

Listen to the media and you'll quickly realise that measurement is too often used as a political tool, to push a political agenda rather than discover the truth. (more…)

One objection to measuring performance with KPIs is that we don't need them; we can already see what's going on by walking around, by our past experience, by our wise intuition, by what people complain about. But our human limitations make these observations inherently biased.

Great strategy execution should be about implementing high return-on-investment (ROI) improvement initiatives. But finding that high ROI requires a few mindset shifts about what leverage really means, about the role of data in helping us find leverage, and about where to act to implement leverage.

It's the week of Christmas and so I don't want to be too heavy and serious. So if you feel inclined to lightly ponder, let me share with you what measuring performance is going to mean for me in 2016. (more&h...

Most organisations do measure performance, even if it's only financial results. But the world over, there is a rapidly growing demand for better quality performance measures of non-financial results. Despite the demand, few organisations are doing it well. The biggest reason is their failure to invest appropriately in their performance measurement approach.

Are you holding back from better performance measurement because your leaders aren't open to it, or because your colleagues are too busy, or because your organisation isn't ready for it? What's really holding you back is YOU and not them...