Are Business Metrics Giving You

What You Want?

Focusing on business metrics that measure the right action result in achieving a goal. Focusing on a goal alone doesn’t produce action.

What You Focus On Sets The Direction

If you’ve ever learnt to ride a motorcycle, you will have likely heard from the instructor that wherever you look is where the motorcycle will inevitably go.

Those learning to ride a motorcycle soon learn just how true this is. As they are learning, if they are worried or fearful, they will tend to focus their attention on looking at exactly what they want to avoid. Then just as surely as night follows day that’s exactly where they end up.

The same is also true in business and it’s why it is so important to have a purpose or at least a goal to focus your attention to head towards, or you can end up exactly where you don’t want to be.

Carefully Choose Your Business Metrics

Going back to the motorcycle analogy, a business’s metrics are like the instruments the rider uses to check the speed, engine temp, fuel level, etc.

A dashboard containing key business metrics makes monitoring performance at a glance possible. Care should be taken in choosing business metrics to monitor. Metrics chosen should monitor beneficial actions that lead to achieving a goal without unintentionally encouraging short or long-term detrimental action.

When setting up a dashboard a trap is having too many metrics being displayed. It misses the point of having a dashboard. A dashboard is to reduce the noise that is created when presented with an overwhelming amount of data. An overwhelm of data makes it difficult to spot when a change occurs that requires an action to be taken.

Key metrics to have in place are those metrics that provide a high-level overview of the health, within each area of the business.

The Metrics Show A Change What Next

When a metric displays an upward or downward trend, further investigation may be warranted to understand why the trend is occurring. From this corrective action can be taken if required or in the case of a positive trend action can be taken to continue the trend.

Just as glancing at the motorcycle’s instruments enables the rider to regulate the motorcycle’s various systems to safely and reliably reach the destination.

The purpose of having a metrics dashboard, monitoring it, and taking action is to keep the business performing within an optimal range for the business.

Maintaining the business constantly within an optimal range makes it possible to meet goals and fulfill the purpose of the business.