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When NOT to measure something

We're always talking about why it is so critical to have performance measures, what is most important to measure, how to design meaningful measures, how to measure the intangible things. But there is a lot of value to knowing when measuring something just isn't the best idea.

Don't measure it if you have no intention of managing it.
Is it really responsible to be measuring something you have no intention of doing anything about? If it's because you were told to measure it, then you have at least two choices.

You can talk to whoever has demanded to measure it, and in the spirit of authentic curiosity, explore their and your points of view and negotiate a more meaningful measure, or drop it entirely if your existing measures sufficiently cover the most important results you are responsible for managing.

Or you can talk to whoever has demanded to measure it, also in the spirit of authentic curiosity, ask for their help to determine what kind of response you should be taking to the measure, it's priority over your other measures, and the guidelines for how much of your resources to throw at it when it goes south.

Don't measure it if the cost of measuring outweighs the value of knowing.

Many data collection systems, like surveys, cost lots of money. Especially when you have to consider factors like measuring over wide geographic areas or measuring to high levels of accuracy or measuring very rare phenomena.

Get in the habit of checking if the likely gain of using the measure (like improvement in sales or reduction of waste) has a smaller net impact on the bottom line than does the cost of measuring it. If you can't show a decent positive return on investment for measuring something, don't bother. How else could you have used the time and money to impact your business' or organisation's success?

Don't measure it for old times' sake.

Do you take on more new measures that you let go? Letting go of measures seems to be such a psychological battle - we hang on to them because they're already being tracked and we might need them again someday. Fine. Keep collecting the data (if it doesn't cost too much), but stop reporting the measure!

It's time to test if there is something more important to put that time and resource into. Perhaps to focus on other higher priority measures, or to spend some time designing more meaningful measures for your current strategy. Unimportant measures will slow you down and waste your time and energy.

Don't measure it if it will be a big stick.

Measures have the worst reputation of being used as big sticks to beat people's performance into shape (or to at least attempt this). Measures can be very indispensable in managing people's performance, but the big stick approach means using measures to point blame or CYA.

You'll see a ripple of fear and defensiveness in every direction around the one who yields such a measure, and it will build into a wave of destruction. If you don't have a performance improvement culture, if there is a real risk that the measure will be used as a big stick, then avoid measuring it. Put the time and effort into some open and candid dialogue to explore the results that matter and how to improve them.

Don't measure it if you're already measuring too much.

Drowning in measures? Do you have more measures than you have time and resources to review and improve? Then don't take on any more! Too many measures is often worse than not enough measures. Overwhelm is so much more debilitating than scarcity when it comes to measures. At least with scarcity you have the time and energy to move in the direction of a concise set of meaningful measures. But with overwhelm, you usually feel stuck and unable to move in any direction at all.

Instead of working on more measures, take stock of the measures you have already, cull those that really aren't that important, and put your focus on just 3 or 4 measures at a time, improving performance in all results systematically.

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