Measure things that are not in control. Organisations tend to shy away from this, as the message initially looks grim. If you are trying to improve things then it’s essential to measure the things that are not working properly.
Building KPI engagement
September 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
KPIs and measures are like scales and gym membership. They are great, but only if you use them (and regularly). No matter how good your management information system is, you must make sure that the team are engaged with it. This means The team use the system regularly to help make business decisions They [...]
Why being bad can be good – Targets, measures and dissonance
September 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I’ve often found that people often get very uncomfortable if you change a measure to show poorer perfomance even if you lower the target proportionately. Let me give you an example. I worked with a paper manufacturer a few years ago. Their (flawed) efficiency measure showed them bobbing between 95 and 105% efficiency. Anyone with [...]
How to implement your KPIs and Measures
September 5, 2011 By 1 Comment
There’s lots of ways of achieving any goal. Through a combination of trial and error, I’ve come up with the GET FIGURES method. The GET FIGURES method is 10 step process to take you from your initial strategic objectives through to a set of working measures. It’s a bit painful fitting the steps to a [...]
Are you confused by your own MI? A half day course
July 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Are you confused by the reports and measures that are supposed to inform you? Do you have meetings where managers blame unpalatable messages on issues with reporting and data? Bernie’s belief is “If you don’t understand a report, the report is badly designed”. In this half day course on report design and usability you will [...]
Do You Work for an Idiot?
July 9, 2011 By 3 Comments
Here is a process improvement idea for you. It is called “poke yoke”. I am told that that is Japanese for “making things easy to get right and difficult to get wrong”. It is a rather grand name for what my old boss used to call “idiot proofing”. Let me give you an example: think [...]
How to get a perfect quality score in 24 hours…
March 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Many KPIs and targets can be an invitation for creative dishonesty. How do you make sure you don’t accidentally drive self defeating behaviours?
Why some KPIs are like pasta makers
January 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
We keep things for lots of reasons. Understanding why we hang on to kitchen gadgets we never use can help us work out tactics for getting rid of unused KPIs.
Poor quality rubbish
January 13, 2011 By 3 Comments
Well intentioned measures on recycling are driving the wrong outcomes.
Three questions to tell if your strategy is broken
December 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Imagine going into B&Q, finding one of the helpful staff and saying “You know a lot about tools, I’d like you to recommend a good one please?”. It sounds pretty silly and it’s pretty clear that the response will be “Well, what is it you want the tool for?”. Strangely enough, many people and organisations [...]
