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.
We don’t want to discard actions. But we need to separate actions and results in our thinking, and link them together in the right order. That is, we start by setting result-oriented goals, and then we choose the best actions that will achieve the results described by those goals.
Result-oriented goals describe the impact we want.
Result-oriented goals describe an impact or outcome that is an enduring quality we can continually improve, or that continually matters. They have these defining features:
- They describe an impact or outcome that that is a quality of something that matters.
- They can be changed (improved) by more than one type of action.
- They don’t have a start or finish, nor are they a series of steps to follow.
- They are qualities that are always present, and they either matter to us right now or they don’t.
- They are the effect of how we spend resources or time.
- They are experienced rather than done or completed.
- Achieving them means that the quality they describe has improved to a degree we wanted.
Notice these features in this selection of result-oriented goals:
- ‘Decrease peak-hour transit times.’
- ‘Reduce the error rate in financial reports.’
- ‘Reduce overtime hours.’
- ‘Increase customer loyalty.’
- ‘Grow our market share.’
- ‘Keep all projects on-time and on-budget.’
- ‘No-one is harmed by preventable accidents.’
Performance measures are very specific types of evidence that quantify the degree to which a performance result is occurring over time. To monitor a result, we’re looking to quantify objective evidence of the result, and track this over time to look for changes. Like these:
- We could measure the average transit time during peak-hour periods over time and see by how much our bus corridor project reduces it.
- We could measure the number of errors per data item in financial reports and look for the decrease we expect after the new financial system is up and running.
- We could measure the total overtime hours worked each week and test what impact productivity training has on reducing it.
Result-oriented goals and result-oriented measures keep our attention on making a difference that matters, through the actions we deliberately choose and implement.
Making the transformation from action to result
What we’re aiming for in our strategic and operational plans are result-oriented goals, with result-oriented performance measures, perhaps targets for those measures, and followed by actions that will achieve move those measures to the targets and thereby achieve the result-oriented goals. Like this:
result-oriented goal > evidence-based measure > performance target > improvement action
If we have started out with action-oriented goals, we have some reorganising to do. Firstly, we need to identify the result we intended from the action, and articulate that result as the goal. Then we design performance measures that directly evidence the result, and help us monitor over time. We might set a target for each measure, and a date by which we’d like to reach those targets. And finally, we check if our original action is still the best way to achieve the result.
We can then use the appropriate tools to monitor both our results and the actions to achieve them. Performance measurement is the appropriate tool to monitor our results. Program and project management is the appropriate tool to monitor our actions. They are connected, but they are not the same.
Do you have action-oriented goals? What result do you think they are aimed at achieving?