Let’s take a peek at what a typical week might hold for a happy Performance Measurement Practitioner:

Monday, 9am: Start the week knowing what lies ahead and feeling well organized.

Monday 9:30am: Review the draft Strategic Performance Report for the month and check that movement towards targets is highlighted and write recommendations for next priorities.

Monday 11:43am: Water cooler conversation with a colleague complaining that reports they produce take too long and are too big: and recommend they structure the report with a heading for each business goal and drop any measures that don’t fit.

Monday, 5pm: Satisfied with completing the most important task of the week: a test-run with a few volunteers of a presentation to recommend a Corporate Performance Office to the Executive team.

Tuesday, 9am-11am: Spend the first hour learning something new about PM, and the second hour deciding and scheduling the actions they’ll take from it.

Tuesday, 11am: Volunteer as the process measurement advisor for the Steering Committee of a new Business Process Mapping project.

Tuesday, 1pm-3pm: Meet with the Strategic Planning team to design the measures session for strategic and operational planning workshops.

Wednesday, all day: Facilitate a results mapping workshop for the HR department, and design and choose the first draft measures. The HR team is rapt.

Thursday, 9am-11am: Write a mini case study on yesterday’s successful results mapping workshop, add it to the success library and also to the internal Performance Playbook email newsletter (sent to business analysts and planning officers throughout the organization).

Thursday 11am-12pm: Document yesterday’s measures into personal PM Library (until the organisation formalizes one).

Thursday, 12pm-1pm: Monthly networking lunch with local PM Practitioners from other organizations. Learn about a new book on strategy mapping–pick up a copy en route back to work.

Friday 8am-9am: Read first chapter and take notes from new strategy mapping book. Read latest articles in favourite PM blogs and ezines.

Friday 12:30pm: Registering for a Dashboard Design course offered by a favourite expert who has finally scheduled a local workshop.

Friday 1pm-2pm: Reviewing performance measurement projects and ensuring the right tasks are scheduled for next week.

Are you a happy PM Practitioner?

The idea is that a Performance Measurement Practitioner is happy when they’re making it easier and faster for others to reach their business or organizational goals, and loving the process of doing this, as much as the result.

TAKING ACTION:
What’s your vision of PM for your organization? Which PM tasks are you giving your time to that don’t support your vision and don’t make you happy? What else is more important to do?