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Organizational Results: Decide on the Results You Want

Nov 6, 2009
Organizational Results

Kendall L. Stewart, M.D.

The possibilities for measurement are endless. Since we all want to succeed without expending any real effort, your colleagues will initially lobby for easy measures. Then they will argue for measures they can personally control; it’s much harder to persuade others to go along with you to achieve results. Some things are too labor intensive to measure and all metrics can and will be criticized for being inaccurate or misleading.

1. Begin with your core organizational values. Every organization now posts its mission, vision and values on any empty wall. What measures would bring those values to life? If teamwork is one of your core values, how exactly would you measure that? Since there are just so many core values to go around, it is likely that your colleagues and competitors are pursuing similar values. How do they measure their success in conforming to the organizational values they espouse? This approach brings the added value of helping you to identify comparative data, which will aid you in judging your relative performance.

2. Choose measures with some scientific validity. By their nature, measures of employee and customer satisfaction are measures of perception. But standard surveys have advanced to the point that they are highly reliable and predictive given their validated methodologies and the large databases most vendors now maintain.

3. Include some process and some outcome indicators in your balanced scorecard. Exceptional performance on key process indicators will reassure you that you are doing the right things to achieve the outcomes you seek. Outcome indictors reveal whether you are actually delivering the outcomes you intended.

How do you decide on the results you want to achieve?

4 Comments
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4 Comments

  1. Kendall L. Stewart  •  Nov 8, 2009 @6:38 pm

    In healthcare, the government is increasingly mandating certain performance indicators.
    The sheer number of these indicators is daunting.
    As a practical matter, these requirements limit the number of additional process and outcomes leaders can follow.

  2. Vicki Noel  •  Nov 8, 2009 @8:50 pm

    In areas such as employee relationships, we use evidence-based indicators of employee satisfaction and engagement determined by externally studying the best organizations to work for (100 Best Places to Work) and internally analyzing the workplace factors that most drives overall employee partnership.

  3. Leeann Sammons  •  Nov 9, 2009 @12:06 am

    Be aware that many of the indicators will compete with one another. In order to reach the desired performance, leaders must learn to balance the competing priorities, demands, processes and tasks linked to these indicators.

  4. Shonkee  •  Nov 11, 2009 @4:32 pm

    As a department removed from the clinical setting, it is often difficult for my team to agree that linking to organizational indicators is relevant. For many years, our department chose indicators that made us feel good. We have now added indicators that show how we are contributing to the organization’s success – and sometimes we see that it doesn’t feel good. But it does promote a connection and a sense of ownership among my team in the organization’s overall success.

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