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Transform Action-Oriented Goals Into Result-Oriented Goals
One of the reasons why it seems so hard to find meaningful performance measures for our goals has to do with whether the goals describe actions or results.
We find plenty of both action-oriented and result-oriented goals, often mixed together, in strategic plans and operational plans in all sectors and industries. And we find that many people don’t even realise there is a difference. But there is a difference, and the difference matters in how meaningful (and useful) our performance measures can be.
Making the transformation from action-oriented goals to result-oriented goals lies in seeing the inherent relationship between actions and results. Actions lead to the results we want. But we must define those results first, and focus performance measures on achievement of the results, not on completion of the actions.
Action-oriented goals describe what we will do.
Action-oriented goals read more like tasks, projects, milestones or activities, and they have these defining features:
- They describe discrete units of work (that might very well achieve an outcome or create an impact on an enduring quality, but don't describe that outcome or impact).
- They have a start, a finish, and series of steps in between.
- They directly consume resources or time.
- Achieving them means that something is done or completed, not necessarily improved.
Notice these features in this selection of action-oriented goals:
- ‘Build a network of priority bus corridors.’
- ‘Implement the new financial software by June.’
- ‘Train all staff in time management.’
- ‘Enhance our customer service policy.’
- ‘Introduce at least one new innovative product.’
- ‘Report near-miss accidents.’
Framing actions as goals leads us to seek performance measures to monitor them, but we end up with things that aren't really measures at all, or are merely counts of how much activity was done. Consequently, we see things like this in the KPI column in our strategic and operational plans:
- milestones like ‘completed by end of year’ (milestones are not measures, by the way)
- single points of data like ‘on-budget’
- volumes of outputs like ‘number of staff trained’ or ‘kilometres of bus corridor constructed’
Actions don’t describe performance because they don’t describe how well the action's desired effect was created. The desired effect of our action is the result we chose the action for, in the first place. We need actions to achieve the results that matter. But if our plans focus only on action-oriented goals and action-oriented measures, our attention is stuck only on doing stuff.
Of course, doing the right stuff is important, otherwise nothing changes. But we need to first understand what results we need or want. Then we use program and project management to organise the right actions to create those changes. What we need from performance measurement, however, is to keep our attention on the degree to which those changes are being created.
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Here is one video that builds a little on this month's Measure Up topic:
KPI BASICS #5: Replace Your Action-Oriented Goals With Results. One of the reasons why we can’t find meaningful performance measures for our goals has to do with whether the goals are about actions or results. Action-oriented goals aren’t true goals, since goals should be about making a difference, not just doing stuff...
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