Tag: Performance Measures

tl;dr: The "two consecutive reds" rule persists because reacting feels like leadership -- but it generates wasted investigations, false success stories, and eroded trust....

Year-to-date metrics often mislead leaders by hiding meaningful system improvements and exaggerating routine variation--making Process Behavior Charts a far better way to evaluate performance. Why...

Are minor league games taking longer? Well, yes and no, depending on the league. My next book, Measures of Success, is about the use of this Process Behavior Chart methodology in the workplace, as applied to our performance measures.  This post explores some data, how asking for more data can be more helpful, and how to use charts to evaluate a metric over time.

Measures matter. The proper analysis of data and performance metrics allow us to separate good changes from bad, progress from stagnation. The methods in my book, Measures of Success, help us determine if our performance is getting better, getting worse, or essentially remains unchanged. Having the right set of balanced scorecard metrics is important. But the role of leaders is important, too. How do leaders interpret measures? How do they respond to changes in metrics? How do they know if a change is worth reacting to?

I’m talking about the use of “bar charts” vs. “line charts” when tracking performance measures through Lean Daily Management, Strategy Deployment, or other methods.