Scales

Finding the better metric

There is one thing men in their 40's tend to do. When we catch up with each other our conversations will touch on one subject almost without fail - our health regime. We'll share our latest finding or practice when it comes to food, drink, fitness, or mindfulness. Usually this is driven by the realisation that we are not bulletproof and our bodies are creaking and cracking more than we'd like to admit.

When this subject comes around with one friend of mine they'll always ask me one question - How much do you weigh? This will be followed by a series of questions. When do you weigh yourself? How often to do you weigh yourself? What's your weight target? And, my answer is always the same - I don't weigh myself. The only time I take out the bathroom scales is to weigh my luggage when I am packing for a trip. 

I feel that my weight tells me very little. For starters muscle is supposed to weigh more than fat so if I am working out or trying to reduce visceral fat then weight seems irrelevant. And, even if I drop 10 kilograms (kg's) it can come racing back with interest (aka. the yo-yo). I don't find it motivating or helpful. In fact, it can be destructive from a motivational and self-image point of view. Instead centimeters (cm's) around the tummy, waist, chest, and neck makes more sense for me as this tells me specifics in relation to my ultimate goals and the behaviours I am implementing. Measuring weight may be legitimate for others if their goals are to .  

In my daily discussions with leaders I come across a similar situation throughout organisations. Traditional and conventional metrics are being tracked when they may not be helpful or relevant. In some cases it can even be detrimental. We have so many measurement options yet we tend to restrict ourselves to the same-old-same-old. Call Centres are a good example. The common metric is to successfully answer as many calls as possible. To be successful an Assistant would need to answer more calls than their peers. Yet, this creates behaviours leading to unsatisfied customers which call back more often creating resource strain on staff and lowered profit margins across the business. Many call centres have woken up to this and now set metrics around how many customer problems were 'solved to the end'. This can mean staff are on the phone for long periods of time creating opportunities for relationships to build and 'Belonging Cues' as Alex Pentland (MIT University) would describe. Not only are customers happier, but loyalty is created leading to a much higher lifetime spend as well as loyalty and advocacy of the business (ie. word of mouth on steroids). It is obvious which metric is more useful in this circumstance.

Measuring unhelpful metrics can create more friction and frustration than anything else. In fact, I would go as far as to say that in some cases having no metrics to track are better than tracking the wrong ones. Or worse, tracking too many causing confusion, fatigue, and unnecessary complication to business. Marketing and strategic consultants often promote 90-day plans as they are long enough for a business to implement and short enough to be agile in changing environments. I suggest a part of this planning is to analyse and decide on which metrics to stop measuring and to investigate the 'better metric'.