Meaningful Planning Includes Metrics and Accountability
Mike Ferguson, Fresh Ground Consulting
Our days are generally full of words. We listen. We read. If you’re reading this now, I can’t help but be grateful that among all the words competing for your eyes and ears right now, you’ve chosen these words.
Think, for a moment, about all the words coming at you from so many sources all day long.
Still there?
The phrase, “information overload” has been in use for a long time and now seems old fashioned and almost trite, as if that simple description can no longer capture the daily flash flood that is the data stream.
Like most people, I play “Where’s Waldo,” searching for bits and pieces or narrow veins of meaningful information in the flood. I have a tool box full of various types of filters to help me.
For leaders, the amount of information inflow is plainly absurd. Without filters, the systems they oversee would collapse. Not only do they need filters at the tactical level, such as systems for dealing with email, snail mail, news, reports, etc., they need filters at the strategic level.
The most commonly cited strategic “filter” in this regard is, at the same time, one of the least utilized in practice: “Actions speak louder than words.”
This idea, that accountability be attached to intent, has been echoed in various ways in proverbs and by leaders of all kinds since ancient times. But my favorite iteration in terms of management comes from a man whose actions have always been of greater value than his words, Warren Buffett, who said, “The best judgment we can make about managerial competence does not depend on what people say, but simply what the record says.”
Whenever I assist an organization with strategic planning, this is the most challenging aspect of the process. I must remain very active in facilitating the process or the planning group will spend too much time articulating the larger elements of the plan and not enough time on assigning metrics and accountability, without which, the plan is just words.
The logic of planning dictates that these tactical elements be applied after the larger strategies have been established. Without vigilance within the planning, real metrics and accountability will be short changed in terms of the degree of thoughtful consideration they are given, compared to mission, vision, goals, etc.
The symptoms of a “mostly words” plan are apparent. Whenever I see a plan with a lot of “TBD” where metrics and accountability should be, I know the planning group did not receive outside facilitation, or everyone, including the facilitator, became infatuated with creating strategies. Another symptom is seeing the same person named over and over as the “owner” of various initiatives. This often happens when the leader of a group assumes responsibility for facilitating the planning process. As the time allotted for planning winds down, he will assign himself and/or some of his key people as owners out of expedience. This is worse than leaving them blank.
Our days are filled with words and more words, and so much of the time we struggle to attach meaning to them. Your planning process should rise above the flood waters by including meaningful details, complete metrics for measuring success, and tactical ownership at all levels of the organization.