Don't mistake output for outcomes

Today's businesses are complex. More complex than we've ever seen. This complexity often stems from the need to strategically evolve and improve while also delivering tactical business results.

What this means is that there is always a flurry of activity. Everyone comes in to work each day and "does" a lot of things. Everyone is ... BUSY.

Get on the elevator in your office and ask anyone how they are and more often than not they will say something like "I am so busy." Many will complain about that when in fact, that busyness is safe and comfortable. That busyness gives a feeling of worth and that they are needed. Just filling ones days with work does not mean that we are creating value.

What business result did my work influence? What risk to the organization did I mitigate? What strategic goal did I move us closer to? These are the types of questions we should always ask of ourselves.

I've always said that if a company created an Executive Vice President of light bulbs, that person would be busy! There are generally a lot of lightbulbs in every business, and they are important. Without light bulbs, the business would be impacted. I am certain the number of burned out lightbulbs would decrease and the quality of lighting would improve.

So, they would be busy, they would show improvement and yet ... not really be needed. When a bulb burns out it's not a big deal to have it dealt with. It's not really possible to justify that role, but I am certain that person would be "busy, busy, busy" from day one.

However, that's not actually the main point of this piece. It just is meant to point out the fact that activity in and of itself means little. We should always scrutinize ourselves for the value we are bringing to the organization.

My actual point is that I am seeing a trend where organizations are mistaking OUTPUTS for OUTCOMES. OUTPUTS are tasks we complete, but OUTCOMES are tangible things that are definable and measurable.

Being busy can create many OUTPUTS. A positive OUTPUT is one that we can tie to a business OUTCOME, if it's not a positive OUTPUT we should question why we are generating it.

We should celebrate positive OUTPUTS, they are what move us forward, but are not tangible business results. Let me fall back on one of my standards, sports analogies ... to me OUTPUTS in football are sacks, first downs, touchdowns, field goals ... but the OUTCOME is winning the game. That is the goal of the team. We should celebrate the big plays, but not to the point where we feel that we have won the game. We must always remember the OUTCOME we are pursuing.

You may ask, but is the game really the outcome? Isn't the championship or the Super Bowl the OUTCOME we desire? This is true, but the first tangible and measurable accomplishment to that larger championship is winning the game.

Scoring 5 touchdowns in a losing game is a lot of great OUTPUT with a failed OUTCOME. If you win the game, you have a great OUTCOME that is also an OUTPUT in pursuit of a championship.

This is actually why this is important. In business there isn't a clock. The end of the game is not as clear, so we can mistake OUTPUTS for OUTCOMES and I think that is dangerous, because we see success where we should actually only see progress. We need to know that the game is still going and we need to keep playing because all of our OUTPUTS could be for naught if we fail to achieve the OUTCOME.

You may ask why this is a risk, and isn't celebrating progress good? It definitely is. Don't get me wrong, celebrating touchdowns is great and it's definitely needed for morale and to keep up momentum. However, the job of the leader is to not let the team lose sight of the ultimate goal. It can feel a bit like a downer honestly, but is vital.

If your team is doing a project meant to improves sales, then all of the tasks like product redesign, advertising, marketing, supply chain efforts, etc. are all important OUTPUTS but until you see sales increase you have not generated the OUTCOME. That doesn't mean the work was bad. Even a failed OUTCOME teaches us many things, but we just need to be honest with ourselves that our OUTPUTS did not generate the result we desired.

This may seem simple, and maybe I am naive, I'd love to hear your thoughts on keeping you and your teams focused on OUTCOMES while celebrating OUTPUTS appropriately in business.