Not much has changed over the past 20 years, since the Balanced Scorecard threw a big spotlight on performance measurement. People still don’t measure performance well enough, despite all the helpful frameworks that have come into being. Personally, I’ve noticed that people still have the same old struggles in measuring what matters. What should we really be aiming for in performance measurement, anyway?

Here are some of my ideas about what the future of performance measurement could (and should) look like:

Feature #1. Measures align to processes, not organisational hierarchy and not people or roles.

We will all appreciate that measures are most powerful when they help us work ON our businesses and organisations, not IN them.

Feature #2. The person with the most passion for a performance result, not the most power, is the owner of that result’s measures.

Tapping into what we each feel passionate about, or driven to take action on, is the way to energise and fuel change. We measure performance to change things for the better – and usually to change the most important things.

So measurement needs our honest and purest energy.

Feature #3. Measures are chosen when they are needed and archived when they are no longer needed; they are not locked into a predefined period of time.

Performance challenges and priorities don’t happen all at the same time, and they don’t all take the same amount of time to fix. They are not always predictable in the amount of resource needed to fix them either.

So it makes little sense to chain measures to financial or calendar years or strategic planning cycles.

Feature #4. Everyone knows when measures are needed and has the skill to design them in conversation (definitely NOT brainstorming).

Great measures are evidence of how well we’re acheiving meaningful performance results. Our future selves need to be very keen and quick at thinking in evidence-based ways to design our performance measures, as and when we need them.

Feature #5. People use measures for self-quantification, to help them pursue their own personal life and work goals, not to play rank-and-yank.

Rather than chasing carrots for motivation to turn up at work each day, people will enjoy the intrinsic reward of having the experiences they value and fulfilling the dreams they hold dear.

Measures will be personal tools we use for continual feedback to tweak our experience of life.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION:

What do YOU think the future of performance measurement will or must look, sound and feel like?