Let’s Ban KPIs…

Mark Hocknell, my lead licensed PuMP Partner, wrote this article, “Let’s Ban KPIs”, which was posted here as well as Mark’s own website. To avoid duplicate content, this article now links to Mark’s original article.

1. David says:

   June 14, 2016 at 10:44 am

   I agree, it is common to mix BAU activity measures with KPIs; I think that an unthinking reflex of “kpi=good” is too easily and sounds good in some board rooms.

   In my own business I’ve developed one KPI (thus ‘k’, ‘key’ means something) that will ‘indicate’, that is, not demonstrate conclusively, performance and is sufficient to trigger further investigation if all is not as expected.

   For this KPI to work, a whole lot of other actions need to occur; but I don’t need to measure these, I just check the KPI, and the KPI is about customer experience: the only thing that really matters

   Reply
   • Stacey Barr says:

     June 24, 2016 at 3:20 pm

     Agreed, customer experience is the ultimate that matters. I do like to measure other drivers of it though, David, particularly when I’m doing business experiments to test the impact of different improvement strategies on an outcome like customer experience.

     Reply
2. Revaz Vachnadze says:

   June 14, 2016 at 4:33 pm

   Why not to limit oneself with D.Parmenter’s definition of the KPIs?
   This will remove main issues.

   Reply
   • Stacey Barr says:

     June 24, 2016 at 3:19 pm

     Revaz, yes I hear your point. But the trouble is that the term KPI has gained so much global momentum that any one person’s definition is drowned out in the noise. Even the great David Parmenter’s! I’ve stopped fighting the terminology battle and instead focus more on the process and meaning of it all.

     Thoughts here: https://staceybarr.com/measure-up/question-4-things-more-important-than-the-kpi-terminology-debate/

     Reply
3. Ken Cowman says:

   June 17, 2016 at 9:44 pm

   Whenever we are implementing Lean Enterprise Management with our clients, we focus on restraining the number of KPIs to two per stakeholder value with each stakeholder value weighted towards the goal of having a balanced, lean organization. One KPI measures the stakeholder value and the other measures the reduction of waste towards achieving the desired result for the stakeholder.

   Reply
   • Stacey Barr says:

     June 24, 2016 at 3:17 pm

     Ken, I suspect you’re on to something there. I wonder sometimes if waste (of any kind) is something we should always be measuring?

     Reply
4. David Janes says:

   June 19, 2016 at 8:51 pm

   KPI’s about as much good as a chocolate teapot unless those who need to achieve them are told clearly what they are, they are actually achievable and they are resourced. Oh, don’t move the goalposts, this naff’s everyone off and causes friction and mistrust

   Reply
   • Stacey Barr says:

     June 24, 2016 at 3:16 pm

     And I would add, David, that KPIs are still a chocolate teapot if people aren’t actively involved in choosing the measures they need to be using.

     Reply