Tag Archives: results-based management

Keeping it Simple

Simple Instructions, simple tasks

Do you ever feel like you sound like a broken record? I know that I do. I often cringe listening to myself rhyme off reminders: “Brush your teeth.” “Don’t forget your homework.” “Take the garbage out.” Yet, the fabric of our routine and the hum of our household co-exist within these simple tasks.

I am tend to repeat idioms. Chances are you can read one on my fridge on any given day. “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” “What goes around comes around.” “Practice makes perfect.” These phrases so often encapsulate the core message I am trying to share that I admit I may sound a bit trite at times.

Ultimately, however, I have learned that my success, both as a parent and as a consultant, depends on how closely I follow the KISS principle. “KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID.” Time and again I find myself falling back on this concept. It helps guide my decision making; it helps me correct course when things aren’t working out. It seems that following KISS often leads to “things falling into place”!

Mired in the Weeds

I recently got mired in the weeds writing a phone contract for my son. Before undertaking this project I read lots of other contracts. I borrowed the best of each, and wrote up what I thought was an airtight set of rules for managing his phone. This original contract was long on substance but short on enforceability. It was far too prescriptive and, as a result, in the real world of crazy family living, elements were broken without consequence. It was too complicated to enforce consistently, so was not effective when needed.

His new contract boils down to FIVE principles. The heart of which is that it is my phone and that I can do what I want with it, when I want, except he is responsible for paying for any repairs. I don’t think it could be simpler. Simple but effective. I can bring any transgression back to the contract and he can’t really argue with me.

The best thing about the new contract is how uncomfortable it makes my son. He can see how easy it is to enforce and that I mean business. He was much more comfortable stewing down in the weeds than exposed out of them!

Simple Does not Mean Easy

Consulting tools and solutions need to follow this same principle. In my experience, any time a project or report is getting too complicated it is probably time to step back and simplify it. Now believe me, this is harder than it sounds. Gathering information and over-analyzing it is often a lot easier than distilling its core message.

The irony of this is that smart clients often try to pull consultants down into the weeds. Just like my overly complicated phone contract, it is sometimes more comfortable arguing about picky details than identifying and solving REAL problems.

Until you distill your core – SIMPLE – message, it is usually difficult to figure out how to solve a problem. Make your clients and kids uncomfortable: fall back on simple, and see how much easier it is to manage results and realize desired outcomes.

Good Enough

When “healthy-ish” is Good Enough

The headline in this month’s Bon Appetit is “healthy-ish”. The edition is full of “delicious, comforting, home cooking that happens to be kinda good for you.” YUM. How refreshing. Shouldn’t food taste good, first and foremost? In my experience, home-cooked food, even food laden in butter, is a better alternative to anything from a jar, bag or can regardless of how healthy it may claim to be.

Someone I know thinks I spend too much time cooking. I believe that the backside of this is that I don’t spend enough time cleaning. The truth is that I personally derive much more pleasure cooking food than cleaning it up, and if the by-product of homemade meals is a “cleanish” kitchen then I’ll take it. You may not want to eat off my floors, but my meals taste pretty good. Good Enough for me.

The same is true for me when it comes to workouts. I love walking and doing yoga and pilates. Nothing crazy hard or intense, but enough to keep me “fit’ish”. The thought of running a marathon makes me gag, but that is really not the point. I am healthy, feel good and enjoy exercising. Oh, and guess what, since I work out diligently I am getting both stronger and more able…. maybe even close to fit.

Nudging towards “-ish”

I think there is a lesson here for all of us, and particularly for consultants. Sometimes an organization may benefit more by being nudged forward in an incremental way than by undergoing a massive transformation. In other words, encouraging them to change something with a view to becoming “good enough” rather than setting unrealistic goals in an effort to become “outstanding”.

Consultants strive to deliver the best possible results. It can be difficult to recognize when “good enough” may be the answer. However, like the transition from packaged food to healthy-ish cooking, or moving the couch potato into a low-intensity, but enjoyable activity, small changes can have lasting, transformational results.

Next time you make a recommendation stop and think whether becoming good enough just might be the best possible result.

Measuring What Matters

Pulling Teeth

Results-based performance measurement is a dirty word. At least it used to be. Years ago I was involved in a multitude of projects aimed at moving Canadian government departments away from counting widgets and towards measuring what matters. RESULTS!!

Many workshops went something like this:

Consultant: How do you know that your program is making a difference?

Stakeholder: Because we serve x number a given community.

Consultant: But how do you know that you are meeting their needs?

Stakeholder: We just know that what we are doing is important.

One of the hardest projects that I ever worked on was for a small program that faced losing its funding if it couldn’t develop a results-based performance model. Helping these stakeholders re-define their business in terms of results was like pulling teeth. We helped them renew their funding. I don’t believe we convinced them that the model would help them deliver their program.

A Commitment to Measuring Results

You can imagine my delight on hearing the Chief of Staff and Strategic Planning for Wake County Public Schools, Dr Marvin Connelly, present the district’s commitment to measuring its results!

Dr Connelly talked about Wake County’s determination to measure whether or not the school system is creating productive citizens. In other words, the high-school graduation rate alone tells you nothing about whether or not students learned what they needed to in school. Instead, it is much more instructive to look at how they are doing in the real world.

Dr Connelly threw out some possible measures:

do former students vote?
how many freshman within the UNC system are enrolled in remedial classes?
are WCPSS students graduating from college?

Making it Count

As a parent with three children in the public school system I am deeply invested in the district following through on this commitment to shift towards measuring results. However, I believe that until this commitment shifts down into the classroom it will be a challenge to produce the productive citizens we need our children to become.

In my perfect world, the net effect of the implementation of results-based management in schools will be a shift away from using test scores as THE metric towards a more well-rounded assessment of both how well students and their teachers are doing. A teacher at my children’s elementary school shared a wonderful article from the Boston Globe that sets-out seven things kids need to master. These skills include: reading, having a conversation and asking questions. Would I ever love to facilitate a workshop focused on developing metrics to measure these things!!

Let me tell you, you don’t need to hire a consultant to tell teachers that a simple test-score does not measure what matters most in the classroom: whether or not children are actually learning and growing. I look forward to the day we start measuring that!

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