You have an idea and a planned approach to take to your leadership and to start the journey toward buy-in and support. If your boss is a numbers person (and they all are, right?), metrics will be helpful in making your case.
The metrics I’m referring to are different from the data you might use to demonstrate the problem or to create a sense of urgency. Performance measures are typically implemented near the end just before launch. The idea, of course, is to understand the results or impact the change has had on our desired goal. Articulating what these metrics might be can be a compelling way to demonstrate our understanding of the problem and how tuned in we are to solving it. Giving tangible examples might also help our leadership envision a future state and begin thinking how powerful that information would be.
Yet there are many challenges with creating meaningful metrics, collecting data, and interpreting the results.
- In the beginning, setting up metrics (or even imagining which might be most useful) can be a hurdle to overcome.
- Issues may surround the cost and time associated with collecting the right data, establishing a firm baseline, and figuring out a way to credibly tie back any results you observe to the idea or action you’re proposing to take.
To overcome these challenges, I created this guide to map existing and develop new performance metrics that align to your organization’s strategic plan. You can also read more about building buy-in with metrics in my book, Flock: Getting Leaders to Follow. Hopefully, the examples will help jump-start your thinking on what might resonate with your leaders.