Finding clarity around what and how to measure for success in your business. Identifying specific areas of your life and work where you want to see success is an important first step in the process. Then, put the right measurement tools in place. In this episode, Eric and Dale work through the process to give you a clear roadmap.
Finding clarity around what and how to measure for success in your business. Identifying specific areas of your life and work where you want to see success is an important first step in the process. Then, put the right measurement tools in place. In this episode, Eric and Dale work through the process to give you a clear roadmap.
[0:00] Loss resistance to change isn't a result of people just resisting change it's just a lack of clarity.
And so sometimes when we talk about measuring we all know we have a tendency to Simply want to measure how we're doing in terms of you know looking at the school.
[0:18] We also have to measure all component unleashing your best in life and work.
This is the game changers with Eric bowls and host Dale Dixon measure what matters.
But what really matters welcome to the game changers this is the podcast helping you Unleash Your best in life and work with Eric bowls.
It coaches trains and inspires leaders to unleash their potential and the potential of those
around them I'm your host Dale Dixon I help Executives craft clear compelling communication and together we have these fun conversations each and every week about bringing our best.
To life and work and today it's all based on a series of conversations that Eric has had is he's out speaking around this idea of measuring.
Matters and then diving deep into it so tell me how tell me exactly what you told me before we hit the record button on how how you came about this and they the the weird dichotomy around,
yeah yeah so it seems.
[1:23] Like that's obvious and it is you know I even have fun joking sometimes they'll call myself Captain Obvious right but when we are talking about the importance of measuring.
If I were to use it as an example of you know let's say the you're uncomfortable urine the place you're located or whoever's listening right now and what you say out loud is hey the room is cold I'm cold.
[1:50] Cool great okay you know that's at you just identify a challenge you're like I want to be warmer okay great you just went from 60 degrees to 65 degrees,
you're warmer but I'm not warm enough well until you get very clear on what warm
it's what the ideal is that turn warmer is just really vague and what's happening right now with how busy and how active everyone is many times it's not.
I heard chip and Dan Heath the great change experts say this way most resistance to change isn't a result of people just resisting change it's just a lack of clarity.
And so sometimes when we talk about measuring
we all know we have a tendency to Simply want to measure how we're doing in terms of you know looking at the scoreboard but we also have to measure all components so when I say all components we need to Define and measure.
What better looks like.
We also need to Define in bit Define and measure where we're currently act and then we do that properly now we have a very accurate gap between the two now we can truly say where the x marks the spot but what usually happens is we don't
Define and measure one of those possibilities right we you say we want to win the game or we just want to have better numbers this year all we want to hit the mark well.
[3:13] That still hasn't been really clear and what I've learned
just spending time with some of the clients that I have a lot of Engineers and some of these come in organizations and I got a dear friend of mine named Eric Nelson who's Engineering in himself.
And the what they say often is in that is if you know are the same way you have Define and measure give a computer quantitative and qualitative information for it to know where to go our minds are exactly why you're the same way,
but we almost take it for granted we're like that that's on my mind really work like no they really do and so if you don't give your mind something concrete to wrap around
it's not going to move in that direction it's just going to work hard to maintain what currently exists so we're literally at a time where we have to measure where we're wanting to go.
This is really around this conversation we had several weeks ago around the idea of clarity but it's getting even more specific around the area of measurement I think of the Axiom.
[4:16] Measure what gets measured gets managed that's right.
[4:21] We're talking about is Drilling in with laser focus on those specific areas that need to be managed
yes so one of the things I had in it's okay to start a little bra like,
and I keep using the analogy but I think it's a good analogy with the one with the temperature if we just say this is what the temperature is I'm cold that is a.
Yes it description
right that if but it's still somewhat vague is general and one of the things we talked about is generality always leads to more questions especially specificity at least two answers and so if I go to my.
Thermostat and just say hey I'm cold and you know I don't you know I just say hey I need to be warmer that's not enough I actually got a set I have to actually set create a set point what is the right
temperature that I want the environment to be the room that I'm in now again this is obvious.
But I asked leaders all the time go to your people and ask them what they believe the set point is.
What is this what's the comfortable number what's the number of we've all agreed to that says is the one that really establishes the ideal most time people are shocked.
They haven't done that let's not like that's like step one right like are we even on the same page we know we want to win the game okay who doesn't okay but that's still pretty General so.
[5:49] We specifically identify the temperature like for our thermostat 71 degrees okay that's the ideal that's the set point well.
In inside of that thermostat you have a set point yet for sensor and you also have a calculator and if these three were people and they actually talk to each other the set point is hey the ideal 71 degrees right but the.
Sensor on it within say out loud hey it's only 60 geared to 60 degrees in here.
And then the calculator was say then we have 11 degrees to figure out how to fix and this communication is constantly happening
will in most organizations there the furnace is on and it's working hard in everybody's working really really really hard
but no one was really making it clear that the septic our goal is to get to 71 and person who knows the cseries isn't communicating with the other and so then they you know in the person who knows there's a gap in the difference is probably not communicating with the other two
in this is happening in organizations all
everybody's working hard furnace is running but it's just running instead of really have any set points to really know where is it trying to get.
[7:00] Do you have some concrete examples where you've seen this happen inside of an organization.
The thermostat analogy makes a lot of sense I'm trying to figure out okay you know looking back in my history where have I seen this happen before so.
Yeah I've got some examples.
The names of the of the guilty so to speak removing removing removing the names okay we're moving in a so in one particular organization that working with right now okay.
There they believe their goal in remember is that they have a good goal you know our goal is to increase our ibadah,
you know there are profit margin by 10% okay that's that's for that that's our goal okay that sounds that's a.
That's a measurable okay that's a that's a miserable so they did part of it right they've they've measured.
[8:04] VIN number so there's a 10% number but what they haven't done with the ideal is there's two parts of that.
We have to measure the we have to define a measure of the essential qualities as well as essential quantities those are two pieces so we need quality and quantity.
Right so if for those who are all about the number of that makes sense but for those who are part of the business where it's like okay but but but what what are we actually trying to attend we accomplish this by 10% but.
But how.
In so the way that these two things work together they realize is like hey no actually we want to go we are going to be this year the.
[8:46] Highest quality provider of X you know what I'm just saying that because if I sit the what the product is make it kind of obvious right and which is great but by itself that's kind of egg.
But when you attach the 10% and ibadah that also now we have a quality that's defined
which is always in hopefully this is making some sense that when you define qualities you actually use words
when you define quantity you use numbers and we need both so when I Define the quality that we're trying to the ideal quality it's,
we provide the highest quality or the best service and this is
shown or we display it because we have a even of this this is what allows us to do you know so you have we have an essential quality identified and we have the central quantity identify so that's the ideal.
[9:44] The next thing they have to do is Define and measure the real where are we right now and not just in guessing so just just like we said Earth this is where we want to be.
We are we act not just in terms of the quantity could we can easily measure where we are in terms of ibadah.
But that's not as easy to determine where we're at in terms of where our place that we want to be in this in this market place in the.
So what we have to do if we now have to go get feedback to get an understanding of just where we are in the real,
like this is where we want to be but we are we starting point that starting place of where we're at is also part of which makes it a little bit.
[10:27] Hard to hear that information because we have to go find that we got to know who will do our customers think about us right now,
what does the marketplace think about it right now where we at and so if we're resistance to that feedback or not immediately going after it and cycling through that we're going after a goal without clearly understanding
the amount of distance we need to cover to actually get there
and so when I talk about defining the the finding measuring the ideal or the gold we're going after we also have to Define and measure accurately where we're starting.
[11:01] So up to this point I'm thinking about the infamous Stephen Covey phrase start with the end in mind.
So that's really step one where do we want to be and you're looking at it from both a qualitative and quantitative standpoint,
yes and I'm just rephrasing here to make sure that this is sinking into my head then it's go back and get a baseline so we know where we're going.
[11:27] Now we're going to get a baseline to know where we're currently at yes Delta between the two yep.
[11:34] Now we start working on the specific areas on how to decrease the Delta yes working on decrease the out now but this is when.
Psychology gets involved this is when okay this is when
all the people involved yes when people get involved if we this is when all those variables start kicking in such as variables that are not always as easy to measure such as
commitment level
in resiliency and willingness to learn and openness to feedback and see because wants to Delta shows up you got to start asking is why does that Delta exist
and the reality I told this to so many leaders most of us do not like feedback.
We say we do but we don't we especially we don't like frequent feedback or very transparent feedback we like Anonymous semiannual
performance reviews you know we like we like these formalized processes that we kind of got to guess what are people thinking no
when you really trying to say when you've clearly identify the finding measuring when I said I'd if I when you define a measure what the goal is.
Your honor this is what we want to be and then you've been also courageous enough to Define and measure where you're currently at.
[12:56] Like with open eyes.
Now we see the Gap now it starts coming real cop why does it exist and how do we close it right that requires.
Real honest at times difficult feedback but it's worth it this is one of those things places where with organizations all the time you're going to work hard anyways so you might as well work hard on a right stuff the stuff that creates high Leverage.
The change high-leverage impact because if we get this right
is what closes the Gap and so when I'm working with these organization hey this sounds so easy in a board room or with your team you sit there,
until you start having to have the real conversation of comparing where the ideal to the real which starts revealing where gaps are and usually when the got start being revealed all everything items accountability heightens
honesty heightens who've responsible for what heightens are we going to fix it I got to remove some in some cases
I got it as a leader I got to be really have some of the difficult conversations in that moment we got to reach out to some of our customers in there and find out where we're really at I mean it really changes the game when you start having a close that Delta.
[14:12] Calling people opportunities.
I feel like I like that I like that people opportunity one of the things I do ask ask of leaders when they're in the when they
done a good job of defining you know because again I say all before.
[14:32] Is specificity that our minds want is specifics that are.
Our people want and I think here's a quick little example as a not only just from a business standpoint.
But you are experienced it in my playing days but also I see it now like it's the difference between saying okay I need to really get serious about exercise.
Okay yeah that that's that's true but then when I change the word and says in say to myself.
[15:01] I need to run three times a week for 30 minutes.
Okay the second one is far more concrete the second one is the probability of movement and action.
Probably went up 60 70.
Because my mind wants something concrete to move toward even if what I'm hearing is concrete is difficult it difficulty doesn't matter the clarity does so even if what I'm we have to do from a concrete standpoint it really hard.
But if it's clear the solutions to closing that Gap come a lot faster,
and so when I talk to me is all the time you're like sometimes we don't want to have that difficult comprar I'm saying thing you're wasting time because what you what you don't realize is the clearer you are the more you define and measure,
possibilities answers will then show up they don't show up,
until you get as clear as possible so all the busy work you're doing without wanting to really Define and measure is many times a bunch of wasted time like it's wasted effort instead of wasting effort do that first,
in the net starts to remind us just amount of effort it's going to actually take hopefully that's making some sense absolutely
yeah courageous be courageous in this area of seeking Clarity is what I'm hearing so as I'm thinking now so we have.
[16:25] Your people opportunities feedback
defining what needs to be measured identifying the gaps defining what needs to be measured I'm thinking back to your example of the thermostat and the specific pieces those three pieces inside the thermostat so you have,
the piece that's measuring the temperature you have the piece that says the set point where we want to go with the temperature in the end of the piece in the middle that says
okay what do we need to do to get where we're going so what does that look like inside the organization inside the leadership structure helping people
stay on task between where we're at now and where we are going.
[17:04] Yes oh so what it looks like inside an organization first thing is to keep in mind is everybody doesn't have the same tasks all tasks are.
But that's not everybody skill set so there's some teams who get together and I'm like look you have some people on this team who are great
establishing the setpoint what the vision is some others are great at you know not to sob story but very clear.
Who have no command I mean they have a clear line of sight they're bold enough to tell you exactly where you're at like
capitalize on that don't complain about it don't call them - individuals on the team they're necessary because a leader not only defines what the possibility can be,
but the also leader defines reality for what it is and when I see a leader does that I mean a leadership team does that maybe does individual leader can't do all these components or that's not their strength there's one particular work l i work right now he's a cop he is a
total Optimist it is he I mean he's so optimistic.
[18:08] But his CFO Italian man it is hard to be a CFO for an optimist right so he said my job is to help balance him out right now those are those two aspects but that
his chief operating officer his the right in the middle.
Oh my gosh he is responsible will in many cases with closing that Gap but the three of them it Mayer in respect the strength they bring to the table
and so is really about the use of those three working together not that one's bigger than they're all critical so what happens sometimes when these kind of conversations happen like a person who's bringing up
the problems or the challenges sometimes gets viewed as Debbie Downer oh no sometimes you know hey
they're looking at reality for what it is always say a positive attitude isn't a denial of reality a positive attitude has more to do with the direction we're going
I can look reality in his face and still see that we can get there but the in order to get there we got to be so honest about these Dynamics So within an organization someone's people always going to be responsible with that Gap being closed.
Here's what's critical is critical from a communication standpoint that we're always doing stuff.
With context around it so if I'm working at closing the Gap I should be always aware of what the set point is if.
[19:34] My job if I'm establishing a set point or working us up I should always be aware of where we're starting from
break because that'll keep me from living in la-la land if I'm working in the middle I should know
not on what the set point is but I also should be aware and constantly in communication and where we came from because I gotta feel the benefits of progress so this is where we
were but this is where we are as we not there yet but we have made it to make gains and momentum I say it all the time momentum is a leaders best friend so
the way that these things work together like a team that is constant there's no big eyes little use this we're in this together but the rules we have are all the same.
[20:18] I'm hearing you talk about self-actualization I know what my strengths are I know what the strengths of those on my team are and we're going to leverage those strengths to our Collective benefit as an.
Until one last point I want to make about that when you talk about the thermostat in the process if you look how the thermostat Works its Cycles.
Is the the the sensor is constantly evaluating what is the temperature now the setpoint never changes it sets their it now if any point it gets to the 71 degrees.
If it gets to 73 degrees or if it's at 69 degrees it at some point if it gets out of that range either the cooling system kicks in or,
the furnace kicks on.
Right so and so but the feedback has to be constant this isn't a one-time conversation and then we come back at the end of the corridor in six months or at the end of the year and then re-evaluate where we are no we're constantly giving me feedback because.
[21:20] Subtle point of this is kind of a nuanced but this is what I want every leader to know why this kind of work and this kind of content context is so important.
Because one of the things that we have a as leaders that we are responsible for is the the,
the efficiency or the effectiveness of how we use resources that we have especially limited resources so when it comes to problem solving or or any of the stuff we're working on a reaching these ideals.
[21:55] We don't want to we don't want them under deliver you know on what we're trying to get done or you know.
But also we got to be careful not to overdo it like our ultimate goal is use just enough energy in this area to get to this outcome.
But if we used a ton just to get to this outcome that's not a good look that's over-salt that's that's
that we made it way too complex and so this is why the feedback is so important because you have to manage and balance how much effort or is people I was like hey
our goal you know we Define effectiveness by did we win I said that's a bad way to measure Effectiveness what you need to measure Effectiveness how much effort.
[22:40] Did we officially use to be as effective as possible that is our ultimate goal because if we're doing that right now we still have additional resource.
To take on future possibilities or take on other opportunities that may show up and we didn't wear out
our entire team in our whole group I was like say a if your team wins simply I'm big plays
and they will you're in trouble because you can't depend big plays every time so this cycling ensures that we that we don't
under but also that we don't under deliver but also that we don't
over-deliver that whole language up hey man we got to we got to over-deliver yeah we want to over deliver on the customers expectations terms of their Joy but the amount of effort it takes us to do it
proof that were Innovative and proof that we're getting better and better is that it's taking less effort
to accomplish more not more effort to barely accomplish the same.
So that's why the cycling of feedback set point real the sensor in the middle that is so critical that that dialogue keeps going back and forth.
[23:52] The pieces are in place and functioning on a constant consistent.
[23:58] Basis because it's all about yeah it's managing momentum.
In your back to what you said and you're managing momentum you cannot ramp something up and have it running Full Tilt 100% of the time.
[24:13] It doesn't work in the Machine World it doesn't work in the human world yep.
Yeah ours are braid that you know like I think it was Vince Lombardi who said exhaustion will make cowards of us all right and you know the exhaustion
but this is where
the conversation and communication is so critical this is why whoever's establishing the ideal whoever's establishes the set point,
for the group and we do it together is always in.
Getting at least feedback than aware of we are for those who are dealing with where we're currently existing and those who are responsible with the work in the middle and the reason is if you only live.
In the vision area in.
The cool guy called as often as possible is idealism grows in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem.
And so if I'm up here setting these great ideals in on that far removed from the actual work.
[25:14] I will appreciate or even if recognize how much work it is to establish that simple right like okay guys with this isn't complicated why can't we just do this well that's an easy question you ask from sitting there
so when you're constantly in communication when the set point stays in constant communication with the sensor who stays in constant constant communication with the furnace who stays in God now we are
beginning to Value what the different contributions are and it becomes part of our decision-making as we go forward
man when you got the momentum like that that special but it you have to do it consistently this communication process is a cycling it's captaining constantly it's not just an annual.
[26:01] Once again we have a tremendous amount of think about and Implement and work on inside of our businesses thank you Eric.
[26:09] I will remind folks this is podcast we love it when people find it and listen to it and share it so if you could help us on that front we would really appreciate it.
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Who needs to hear this podcast today so with that you can find more about Eric and what he does and helping leaders unleash their potential and the potential of those around them the website is the game changer zinc
dot-com the game changers.
[27:08] Is the website you can also find him on LinkedIn you have a fantastic day Eric thank you so much appreciate you my friend.
Absolutely you too this is the game changers podcast unleashing your best in life and.
[27:24] The game changers unleashing your best in life and work with Eric Bowles and Dale Dixon.
Eric is an executive coach leadership expert change consultant and keynote speaker.
Read his book Moving to great and find him at Eric bulbs.com connect with Dale at Dale Dixon media.com.
[27:42] Music.