Most performance measurement systems are never fully brought to life because of poor performance culture change management. The following prompts are a framework to design your performance measurement system, acknowledging that it is a change process, just like any other initiative your organisation faces in the spirit of continuous improvement and adaptation.

POINT 1: describe the difference your performance measures will make

What will it mean to have performance measurement working well in your organisation?

POINT 2: check who has control over initiating & maintaining this difference

Can you control the entire process of developing and using performance measures in your organisation? (Not likely.) Whose leadership, help and commitment will be important? Can you access, inspire and influence these people?

POINT 3: describe the differences in rich sensory detail

How do you want people to respond to developing and using performance measures? What will people be doing when then have performance measures? How will your organisation be different when it has and uses great performance measures? What old artifacts will be gone, and what new artifacts will replace them?

POINT 4: reflect on why you want performance measures

What is the ultimate reason why you want performance measures, why your organisation should have them? What can’t your organisation achieve without performance measures? Will performance measures really be an important way to achieve these things? What else will you need to do?

POINT 5: define the evidence that will let you know performance measures are making the difference they should

What are the signs of the kind of performance measurement culture you want to nurture and mature? What will convince you and others that you have the “right” measures? How will you know that people are producing and using the measures properly? What are the indicators or flags of unwanted unintended consequences, or performance measurement “going bad”?

POINT 6: explore how performance measures will affect other things and be affected by other things

How are people likely to respond to the changes that come with developing and using performance measures? Which organisational systems, processes or structures help or hinder developing and using performance measures? For each effect you ponder, how can you avoid, overcome, work around, work with or compensate for it?

POINT 7: articulate the principles that will guide the change you are trying to make

What will be important to role model as your develop measures for your organisation? How should people all throughout the organisation be involved in the process? What philosophy about the role of performance measures will be important to weave through everything you do?

POINT 8: plan what needs to happen, when & where and who’ll be involved

How will you engage the right people at the right times, stimulating their awareness, desire, knowledge and action? How will a framework that links measures to all levels of planning & decision making in the organisation be designed? How will those measures be brought to life, so they are regularly reported to the right people at the right times? How will you be certain that the measures will continue to be used, reviewed and replaced when no longer relevant?

POINT 9: work out the resources you will need to get from plan to reality

What amounts and types of funding, time, technology, space and knowledge do you need? Where will these resources come from? What will have to stop, be delayed or change to make this possible?

TAKING ACTION:

Are you treating performance measurement as an event, or as the process that it truly is? To build your performance measurement process, it helps to have a plan, just like any change project. Outline your plan using the prompts in this article. And if you want the step-by-step process to get you well and truly underway, read more about how the PuMP Blueprint can be your self-paced guide at http://performancemeasureblueprintonline.com