Blog
How do you measure your achievements? The Dashboard Principle
Many companies rely on targets to drive their workforce/company. Some are Production, some Financial others, such as HR could involve measuring absenteeism, accident free days etc., in other words there are virtually no areas of a company that cannot be targeted and therefore measured in their % of success.
However, regardless of the subject how often are the results analysed? At the end of the week, trading month, quarter or season? Financial targets are, of course, accurately reflect overall performance from a (profit and loss) P/L perspective and as such impact commission and salary levels, marketing initiatives/spend and even product development. Basically if the financial performance is below target there is nothing in the ‘pot’ to pay for anything other than essential elements to ensure the organisation continues to perform; is that necessarily correct?
Some will argue that to stop marketing when times are tough and performance less than stellar is the wrong way to go, others will pursue the opposite argument. One way that businesses can keep their fingers on the pulse in a ‘real time’ environment is to utilise the Dashboard Principle. Quite simply you decide on the Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) of your business and these are continually updated either daily or even hourly if your product or service demands it. The visible devices are, as the name suggests, graphics (which can be thermometer, gauge, graph or any other device, personally I always used the image of a Dashboard itself!) and reflect the performance and status of the company. I worked for Franklin Covey and in the reception area of all of the company’s offices were graphics showing the number of Seminar places (actual) booked and the company’s financial position as compared to the previous year (in % terms obviously).
In the manufacturing area the number of Planner produced daily as well as ‘clean sheets’ (usable print) and this formed part of the printing crews’ bonus structure at the end of the month. There were many other examples but the message was crystal clear “If what you were doing was not helping to move the needle of the Dashboard, don’t do It”. This made it clear throughout the company what the priorities were and everybody was communicated with and led in the same direction. Targets and the need for them should be seamless in their purpose, only then can the business learn what needs to change in order to move forward.
Let’s bring the principle into your business and whether you are an Owner Manager, have a small team or are part of a larger business this principle can work for you. It pinpoints quickly what things aren’t working, possibly, but more importantly it keeps the temperature of the company and its business in the forefront of the employees/owners. This is not a ‘silver bullet’ when it comes to measuring performance against targets but I can, from personal experience, recommend it as an excellent motivator and business tool which can send many important messages.
