Why Bother Measuring Change?

In this fourth post, based on Nick Anderson's book, Focusing Change to Win, we highlight contributions from 1072 Business Leaders on The Why and What of Change. The post gives some of the key findings on measuring change and a sample of useful tips from the book.   

• Don’t measure change at all
• Don’t know if they do or 
• Feel measuring change is too difficult

 So Why Measure?

 Here is some evidence why this is worth struggling with:

• Learning is the most mentioned benefit of measuring change (27.1%). Yet, if this is so important, then why the lack of focus on vehicles like coaching, mentoring and training to capitalize on this learning?
• Those who see benefits of measuring change do not see an impact on marketing and customers. This is curious, as our contributors’ most common reason for losing customers is not price, but:

After detailed analysis, it seems the relationship between change and competitive advantage is not as clearly visualized as one might think. Employee metrics are low compared to satisfaction surveys on personal performance, resistance to change, improvement to company culture, and understanding our purpose. The lack of focus on individual behavioral change and tracking pay-related rewards is further evidence of little focus on accountability and establishing a requiring environment.

Another facet of measuring change that concerns us is the blend of lagging indicators, which keep score, and leading indicators, which alert us to directions and the pace of change.  There seems an over-reliance on lagging metrics, which are ineffective in tracking behavioral, cultural, and societal issues; this is a seductive trap for both novices and experienced professionals fall into because lagging metrics are so easily measured.

Even when metrics are agreed upon, the next challenge is creating greater transparency so that they are used to create and sustain change momentum.

What Questions do Change Metrics Need to Answer?

Overall, there needs to be more focus on developing effective change metrics. The challenge is: How well do your change metrics accelerate learning, problem solving and decision making?  Based on survey responses, we believe organizations should look at how their metrics address these questions in three critical timeframes:

• Navigating during a Change 
• Reviewing Change Results and Lessons Learned
• Planning the Next Change 

Survey responses suggest establishing a change scorecard with their leadership team and key stakeholders to address:

• Those questions which the team needs to answer
• What current metrics could be put to good use and how
• How well do current or proposed measures cover the risks of losing customers through poor quality and the extent to which sales follow-up is used during the change process
• How well the organization is reducing assumptions about customers’ view of the change and how they respond to their customers’ needs
• How their selected metrics allow preemptive or quick responses to competitors
• How to gauge and track employee stress around the change
• The extent to which they can respond quickly and effectively to employee’s stress before stress changes to resistance

Takeaways:

1. Although most organizations measure some aspect of change, few look at the impact on customers and sales
2. Change measures should both be leading and lagging designed to add value to current change, lessons learned, and planning future changes
3. Agree on a change scorecard applicable to all corporate change projects

To attend a webinar on this topic or other topics covered in Focusing Change to Win go to http://focusingchangetowin.com/webinar/ .  Use the comment form below or email us directly at admin@tbointl.com to ask a question or to open a dialogue with the author or one of our other team members.