#5 Performance measurement helps know your limits

How fast can you run 800 meters? Most people cannot answer this question. The reason is that you have never measured it before, right? Performance measurement makes us see our own limits; we can learn how fast we can run 800 meters, how much weight we can lift, and how far we can jump. Once we know, we can improve. That is why athletes always measure their performance when they are training or competing.

Same goes for organizations. If we do not measure, we would never know how much we can accomplish. If we never measure, we will never improve. Hence, another benefit of organizational performance measurement is that it enables us to become aware of the limit of each process. For example, we can find out how many customers we can serve per day, how many items we can deliver to customers per month, or how fast we can respond to customer complaints. Once you realize that, you will be able to improve your process. Do you know the limits of your own work processes?