You can't handle the truth! In this episode, Richard Pharro, CEO of APMG talks to Stacey Barr, The Performance Measure Specialist and founder of PuMP training and certification as she talks through how to 'measure the immeasurable' (intangible, qualitative and vague goals).
If you create KPIs or are developing your Evidence Based Leadership and Delivery - this is a must-listen episode.
Stacey is a pioneer in performance leadership and her passion is to get leaders to take ownership of the truth, dispensing with woolly, 'weasely' goals that tell the story they want to convey as opposed to the fact-based decision-making and transparent, honest results that are essential to an organisation's success. She urges leaders to identify clear, simple, understandable KPIs - then stand by the results good or bad.
During the interview she gives some superb examples and key takeaways that anyone creating KPIs can start with immediately.
She recommends two great books ' Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words' and 'Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonesense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management' quoting "Leaders need to make a fundamental decision - Do they want to be told they're always right or do they want to lead organisations that actually perform well?"
When Richard asks her if she can demonstrate ROI on her PuMP methodology - she laughs, answering 'It would be ironic if I couldn't' and relays the situation and solution for a one company that was able to measure the reduced time they took to place failed flight controllers into new positions - the results were an average improvement of 47 days (from 67 to 20) and the savings totalled $500,000 over 7 months using PuMP . They had invested $12k over that period to determine what had initially seemed immeasurable - and this equated to a hugely impressive 4,000% ROI!
Stacey also shares examples of hard-to-deliver KPIs vs measurable metrics and provides 3 practical tips to get started in creating - as well as details of a free video and 10 further top tips to get you started.
More information on PuMP Training and Certification