Broad Communication

A performance metrics system is, in part, a communications mechanism conveying the organization’s performance against stated goals and in doing so reinforces leadership’s commitment to stated behaviors and results. To effectively achieve these objectives, performance measurement system communications must reach their intended audience. Too often, the organization’s metrics remain largely unobserved; residing on desktop computer dashboards or in binders tucked away in filing cabinets. Broad, direct, routine communication of performance measurement system’s output to those affecting the results is therefore necessary to achieve the reinforcement desired.[wcm_restrict plans=”41640, 25542, 25653″]

Broadly communicating organizational performance measure outcomes to the workforce at large can occur in many ways. The following list presents several mechanisms proven successful at numerous organizations in routinely conveying and reinforcing the organizational performance measures message:

• Prominent Postings – Prominently posting of department or workgroup measures in common areas such as at main entryways, outside manager and supervisor offices, and in break rooms, such that affected individuals can’t help but see the performance measures during ingress and egress
• Department Meetings, Pre/Post Shift Briefings – Reviewing one or more relevant measures including actions that can be taken to improve performance during routine staff meetings
• Management Review Meetings (MRM), Management Roundtables – Senior manager meetings focused on reviewing performance measurement system output (see StrategyDriven article, Organizational Performance Measures Best Practice – Map Performance Measure Ownership); holding accountable those individual managers whose decisions and actions affect metric output. These interactions included best practice sharing and corrective action discussions targeting improvement of measured performance
• Board of Directors and Senior Leadership Team Briefings – Corporate, division/business unit level performance reviews aimed at maintaining accountability among executives, directors, and senior managers
• All Hands Meetings – Senior executive communication of the organization’s goals, achievements, and opportunities to improve strongly reinforces leadership’s resolve to the achievement of the company’s goals in a manner consistent with its values
• Individual Performance Review Meetings – One-on-one discussions between individual’s affecting performance measure outcomes and his/her immediate supervisor focusing both successful performance and opportunities for improvement (see StrategyDriven article Talent Management – The Difference Between Personal Goals and Organizational Performance Measures)

Note that posting updates and most review meetings (department meetings, pre/post shift briefings, management review meetings, management roundtables, and senior leadership team briefings) typically occur at a frequency consistent with the update frequency of the performance measures themselves and take place at some brief interval after the updates occur so to ensure timeliness of behavioral reinforcement and follow-up actions.

Final Thought…

No one individual should have his/her performance metrics shared publicly. Such results should be confined to confidential conversation between the individual and his/her supervisor. When instances occur where an individual’s performance may be singly represented within a performance metric, that metric should be eliminated from public display or combined with the next higher group’s performance to create a broader based average performance set.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”41640, 25542, 25653″]

Hi there! Gain access to this article with a StrategyDriven Insights Library – Total Access subscription or buy access to the article itself.

 
[/wcm_nonmember]

About the Author

Nathan Ives is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.