If you go looking for KPIs or performance measures, you'll often come across articles that debate the pros and cons of various measures, or that compare the merits of one measure to another. But don't be fooled: the search for the measures that are best for everyone is a search in futility.

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.

It's obvious to most people why people who work in the strategy office, or even in quality or process improvement roles, need to have some degree of performance measurement skill. But that's not sufficient if your goal is to have a consistent approach to selecting performance measures throughout the organisation that keep everyone focused on what really matters in achieving the organisation's s...

For over a year Michelle and the Strategy Team worked to find a set of performance measures their Executive Directors would accept. The Executive Directors hated those measures. Could the Strategy Team ever come up with measures their leaders would accept?

If there's still some uncertainty or cynicism about performance measurement in your organisation, I'd suggest don't rush in and try and implement a corporate-wide performance measurement approach all at once. You'll probably get more traction if you get started with performance measurement using a pilot project.

Accountability isn't the answer to underperformance. Performance can only improve with a relentless focus on finding solutions to the constraints that hold performance back. (more&...

You depend on the quality of data and information to provide a stable foundation for your decision making. Decision making often involves responding to something, so you need your data to validly describe what you are responding to so that you choose the right responses. Whether your data is quantitative (based on numbers) or qualitative (based on perceptions), it's integrity depends on 5 wi...

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.

Just as the principle of leverage can apply to many different situations and contexts, from bicycles to business process reengineering, the lessons I'm learning from my running coach, Rina, and other world-class athletes also seem to apply to my work as a Performance Measurement Practitioner. The pursuit of excellence in anything, it seems, is based on a core set of principles.

5 Stars -- Important Performance Management Lessons That Speak to Everyone Gary Cokins asked me to endorse this book. And I didn't hesitate, for the value of Chapters 33 and 34 alone!