#88 - Why I hate KPI's and you should too

Are you tired of chasing after meaningless Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that don't really measure the success of your organization? If so, you're not alone. In fact, many people feel the same way. That's why I've created a new podcast episode titled "Why I Hate KPIs and You Should Too."

In this episode, I'll explain why KPIs can be misleading and why there's a better way to measure success. I'll share with you a more meaningful and impactful approach to transforming your organization that goes beyond just hitting targets and numbers. By tuning in, you'll discover how to focus on the things that really matter, such as customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and overall business impact.

So if you're ready to ditch the KPIs and start creating real change in your organization, then be sure to listen to my latest podcast episode. It's time to embrace a new way of measuring success and achieve the results that truly matter.

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Go to https://www.qileader.com/ to start your transformation journey as well.

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/muriellemachiels/

Transcript

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In today's podcast, I wanted to talk about KPIs and particularly why I hate them, and why they are often not efficient enough to get the transformation that you want, and will of course talk about a better way to approach your transformation successfully. I'm Murielle, CEO mum and educator, I used to work really hard and sacrifice the important things to me until I lost my motivation. Fast forward past many failed attempts and lessons learned. And I found a way to reach great results while working less. Today, I'm obsessed with helping other leaders build meaningful lives. So each week, I'll be sharing inspiration to change your life and organisation. This is rebel leader with a heart. I don't know about you, but I often hate customer service. And my current telecom company is the worst when I need to help I can call or chat with them. Every time the customer service person asks for my customer number, while I'm calling with their number or chatting to their platform. It frustrates me. But that is not what frustrates me most. What really drives me crazy is that when they can't help me immediately, they transfer my problem to the second line. Supposedly more expert person will then handle my call. That is normal. Of course as the first line Customer Service employees can't solve every problem. But when they escalate a problem to the second line, they automatically close the ticket. Now if you don't know what a ticket is, here it is often when you have a question for customer service, a ticket is opened in the system. And when your problem is solved, your tickets is closed. It's in fact a great way to track how many problems or questions are reaching customer service. Which ones are still in need of an answer how long it takes to solve an issue, how many issues are still open. And so many organisations love to measure things. And in principle, measuring things is great to know if you reach an objective or not. The problem comes when companies find it's more important to show great KPIs key performance indicators, then to actually meet an objective. And that's the case of my current telecom company. A KPI showing that they are delivering a great customer service is the number of closed tickets or the percentage of close tickets. When a ticket is closed, it means they've helped solve the customer's problem. And that's in principle again, a good KPI. But problems arise when having good KPIs becomes more important than for instance, actually delivering great customer service, which is a case in my telecom company. The bonus or evaluations of the people inside it depends on that percentage of closed tickets, KPI and that KPI is probably very bad because once customer service escalates a problem to another level, the tickets remained open and weren't sufficiently answer. And that probably frustrated the manager and employee is because their evaluation and KPI was in bed. Well, it wasn't really their fault. The first level of customer service gets the call from the actual customer. They can't help them because it's more specialised. So they escalate it to a second level, but then that second level isn't doing their job. And so their tickets remains open, and they get a bad evaluation, or they don't get their bonus. And it's because the second line doesn't do their job well. But for management and the board's it's also not good to have a bad customer service. Well, they know how important that is. And that's when politics comments play. Someone in the organisation must have decided, You know what, once customer service level first escalates a problem to the second line. Let's close the tickets. Problem solved for everyone internally because the KPI improved immediately customer service is happy, the managers are happy, the board is happy. It's only the customer like me that isn't happy, because once his problem is escalated, it rarely receives an answer because the ticket was closed. So you have to call back and back and back until you find someone that actually cares enough to help you. And we see this happening quite often, in large, more bureaucratic companies, the KPI key performance indicator has become more important than the actual objective behind it. And numbers are being manipulated to look good. So why am I telling you this? Why should you care about my frustration with my telecom company? I'm telling this because you can start a transformation from different levels, you can start it from the level of measuring things with reports and KPIs, you can do it from the level of having things or the results, services products, or what you're doing, you can start the transformation from the level of doing changing your actions, behaviours, habits, processes, this is the how, and you can change from the level of being changing your emotions, beliefs, sensations, thoughts, values, mindset, the identity of the people within the organisation, but also why you do things. And that's the level of why. So these are the four levels at which you can start a transformation measuring having doing being so you can be KPI and reports oriented, you can be results oriented, you can be process oriented, or you can be values oriented, and most organisations often approach transformation in the least impactful way, they go from the outside in. And that means from measuring, having, doing and only being, if they ever get to that level, from the outside in. Well, research has shown that it's way more efficient, to have a transformation from the inside out. So you start with changing the identity, the habits, the values of the people, then they start changing their behaviours, that's when you start getting results that you can measure. My telecom company is probably very much focused on the measuring and the having. So the KPIs and the having that actual customer service, maybe they developed some processes to achieve that. So they might have changed a little bit they're doing but I can tell you not enough, because every time I call them or chat with them, I don't get what I want. I'm already stressed before taking my telephone, because I know it will be really hard for them to help my actual problems. And that's probably because they don't have the processes in place to actually help their customers. And then what they don't have at all. And I know that's because I've already been there I talked with a lot of people that are working there is that what they actually actually don't have is the culture and habits within that organisation to actually get the results. So they haven't actually worked on the level of being the habits, the beliefs, what are the leaders? Who do the leaders have to become to get the results that we want? And how can we then shift the culture of our organisation and I see the same happening over and over again, in a lot of companies when they implement the agile methodology. It's a great methodology when you operate in a volatile environment, which is almost always to the A let's face it. Then coaches are hired to transform teams and teams start to appoint product owners Scrum Masters team leaders, they start to have Sprint's of two weeks and Kanban boards with posted every morning they organise stand up meetings, they adapt the KPIs. But then management still wants to know when exactly a certain product is going to be released, because they need to communicate it to their boards, in which prints will you finally deliver what we need and So teams are expected to still work with a waterfall philosophy. So with detailed plans, but with the tools of agility, mistakes are still frowned upon risks are to be avoided at all costs. Detailed, predictability is still expected. And management interferes constantly with the process. And then everyone starts to hate working agile, because it creates even more work and chaos, and people don't really see the benefits. And here again, dose organisations haven't changed their culture, or who they are. They forget why they implemented the agile methodology in the first place. They implemented it because making detailed plans for a longer term doesn't work anymore, you have to change that. And so if you want to implement the Agile way, you hear again, you have to change at a level of being what are the shifts that need to be happening in our culture? Or values? Who do I need to be as a leader, but also as a member or as an employee of that organisation? Who do I need to be, then what are the processes I'll put in place, then you'll get the results that you can measure. And so when you don't implement it, that way, you get a lot of resistance, the actions you put in place don't really deliver the expected results. Because these actions are not taking with the appropriate level of being people hang their posts on the Kanban. People apply the two weeks prints, but with still the disposition of a traditional leader that doesn't really understand why or how to be agile from the core from the level of identity. And so we don't get the results that we expect. And it's requires a lot of energy and hard work when you transform that way. So why am I telling you all this, because research shows that changing at a level of being has a ripple effect on your actions and results. For instance, Yale University conducted a 23 years study on the psychology of ageing. They followed over 600 men and women from their 50s until their old age, and they asked them a series of questions at age 50, about their mindset or their view of ageing. They wanted to see whether those people had a positive or negative view of ageing. Like, when you're old, you're more useless. You get sick when ageing or I can still be active and healthy. When I age, I'll be able to learn new things to travel and to be more with my family. And then they divided the people in two cohorts, the ones with a positive view on Ageing, and the ones with a negative view. And the research we covered that having a positive mindsets about getting older, extends one's life by seven and a half years. And this is more than what you could gain by maintaining a healthy weight, abstaining from smoking and exercising regularly. And in a separate study about the same perception about ageing, they found that a positive view on Ageing reduces your risk of developing dementia by 50%. Even if you have the gene that causes a stronger risk, and why is that because your identity being will have a ripple effect on your actions doing and on your results having and so the older people who believed they still could be healthy and active, exercise more, learn new things had better relationships ate more healthily than those with negative beliefs. Another example is if I believe I'm a healthy and fit person, it will be easier to develop good eating and exercising habits. But if I see myself as a lazy person, going to the gym will feel as a huge chore. Why bother? I'm lazy. And this is why it is so important to start a transformation at a level of identity, who you are at a level of being your culture, your values, I define In the level of being as your beliefs, mindset, thoughts, emotions, sensations, values, it is often why you do certain things. The level of doing is more about actions, behaviours, habits and processes. It's about how you do things. The level of having is your results, your products and services, it is what you do. And the level of measuring is your reports and KPIs. And that is why when I help leaders, and their teams or their organisations to transform, I will always start from the level of being, because you know, a lot of things, you probably have a lot of things. But that's not the problem. The problem is that we need to have this shifts at a core level of being that will then have a ripple effect. And that's why learning collectively is easier, because of course, it's easier to change who you are, when all the people around, you are changing who they are as well. That's also why I love the blended formulas. So blended is a mix of workshops, keynotes, coaching moments, but together with online micro content, because that's micro content that we deliver every day to the people is designed to transform their identity. And having that micro content, being there every day over a longer period creates that shift. When you only do one training programme, one workshop, follow one inspiring training. Well, you might be inspired, you might understand you might be motivated, but then you get back at the office, and you fall back into your old habits, and you don't really have that shift in identity. So if you want to have that shift in identity, it's really about realising what's happening inside of you, your thoughts, understanding how you can recondition yourself. And that's where micro content micro actions every day will help you to actually change from the core. So now just look at your organisation. Is your organisation focusing on the level of being? Or is it a lot focused on the results, the KPIs, the reports, and how is the transformation happening? Is there a lot of resistance? Or is it smooth? So the goal of this podcast was really to make you realise that if you want actually long lasting transformation, you have to go deeper inside and not only work on superficial things, but really change from the level of being. Yeah, you finished another episode of rebel leader with a hearts if you want more, go to rebel leader with a heart.com For show notes and past episodes. If you love the show, subscribe, leave a review and share it with your friends The more the merrier. Thanks for tuning in and have a great week you rebel leader with a heart.