Often, new performance measures can't be constructed on existing data. We've not measured them before, so not thought to collect that kind of data before. Sadly, too many important and useful measures are not brought to life because of too much procrastination in gathering the data. Guest author, Jerry, shares a great example of how to handle this problem, from his experience w...

The project team gets together and sets the scope of their KPI project. They outline the steps that need to be followed. They specify how much time to allow for each step. They define the report to be delivered at the end of the project. Then they call for quotes from KPI consultants. And even though this hasn't worked in the past, they wonder why it doesn't work again.

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.

Experiments are what scientists use to stop assumptions from limiting how much they learn about the natural world. And we can use them in business to stop our assumptions from limiting how we can elevate performance, and from wasting the resources we invest to do it.