How to Measure The Hard Stuff

Engagement, Culture, Teamwork, Morale, Collaboration, Alignment...The list goes on and on.

So many businesses claim they want to drive these things in their organizations. Let me walk you through an all too familiar example. Company X (a very original name, I know) wants to increase collaboration across their teams because the benefits are so obvious. Collaboration helps connect our people, solves problems, and it’s just the way of working in this new world! So Company X introduces a new tool or process that they believe will increase collaboration. They give it a shot for six months, then they circle back and decide if it “feels” like we increased collaboration. Somewhere along the way, we decided collaboration was too intangible (it wasn’t) and our situation was too unique (not true), so we didn't set any metrics to gauge success.

Why is it Difficult to Measure?

Are you familiar with Douglas Hubbard? If not, take a few minutes (after finishing the rest of this post) and read up on him. He’s done a ton of work in this space. He often goes back to a few core principles:

• If it matters, it can be observed or detected
• If it can be detected, then we can detect it as an amount or in a range of possible amounts.
• If it can be detected as a range of possible amounts, we can measure it
• Every intangible, no matter how nebulous, can be observed and measured in some meaningful way once we figure out what, precisely, we are measuring and why it matters

There are three common misunderstandings that lead to measurement seeming more difficult than it actually is:

The Object

In my opinion, this is the most common gap when it comes to measuring the hard stuff (which is why you'll notice that its the largest section of this post). What is the thing (the Object) you’re actually trying to measure? Sticking with the collaboration example, does Company X really know what they mean when they say that? If they experience better collaboration than previously, that means it is different in some way. If it’s different, we should be able to observe it. And if we can observe it, we can measure it.

One way to shift your thinking to better understand the "Object" is actually borrowed from the world of Psychology. In Solution-Focused Therapy, there is this concept of the "Miracle Question" that is used with patients. If a miracle occurred overnight, and your problem was suddenly solved, what are the initial small things you'd notice that indicate the problem has vanished? This helps bring outcomes and changes to the forefront of the conversation, (aka "Objects") you can measure if they are present or not. Going back to Company X and their goal of increased collaboration - Maybe everyone you requested to do a story mapping exercise with was actually able to attend. Maybe you didn't have to make sure the same document is in Confluence, Sharepoint, emailed out, and put in a Slack channel.

Another way to do this is through an activity where you "clone" your organization. If Company X has more collaboration that Company Y, what would be observably different? They may have lower employee turnover. They may also have fewer recurring meetings. Maybe there are far fewer production defects. Maybe Company X uses far fewer online tools. It's likely a combination of these things.

Continuing with the example, Company X sees the first step toward collaboration as an issue with tools used to share information and create documentation. They are now able to say something like this:

We believe that the over-saturation of online tools in our workplace is hindering our ability to effectively collaborate. By reducing the number of tools used, we expect to see:

• An increase in understanding the purpose of the tools we keep
• A decrease in status emails & status meetings
• A decrease in time spent to find specific information within the tools we do use

While Company X wants to address Collaboration, the “Object” at hand is actually the observable decrease in dependence on tools. After collecting and measuring, they can then re-assess what the next “Object” of focus is.

The Concept

Measurement is generally pretty misunderstood, and this another huge part of a bigger issue when it comes to “The Hard Stuff.”

Raise your hand if you believe the desired outcome of measurement is to get an exact and statistically accurate number... Many would argue that's not really the case. When you start taking the pressure off of preciseness and focus more on a reduction of uncertainty, measurement becomes much more of a realistic and attainable goal. "The way scientists see it, measurement is the reduction of uncertainty about a quantity through observation."

Maybe Company X was under the impression that by reducing the number of digital collaboration tools, we'd see anywhere from a 0 - 50% decrease in time spent looking for specific information. Huge range, but it's a start. As we learn more, we work to reduce the uncertainty. Maybe we begin to realize that the decrease is more in the ballpark of 10% - 25%. Not only has Company X learned more and increased predictability, but now they are now better able to weigh the potential benefits and better able to evaluate its worth and make trade-off decisions.

The Method

If you've made it this far in transitioning the intangible to tangible, Congrats. There are now so many methods at your dispense to go ahead and measure! There is no shortage of potential metrics to ensure you're approaching this in the most simple and valuable way.

Can you...

• Do some form of A/B Testing?
• Find relevant data that already exists within your org?
• Use a good ol' survey? (Check out Survey 101 to ensure its effective)
• See if anyone in another organization already did something similar?
• Collect information as its happening?

So, How Does this Actually Come Together?

Let's bring this all back to Company X:

They want to increase collaboration across teams.

If their future state had fewer online tools, it would be an indicator of increased collaboration.

From fewer online tools, they would expect to see an increased understanding of the tools they do use, which can be measured through a survey.

From fewer online tools, they would expect to see a decrease in status emails and status meetings, which can be measured through data within their internal systems.

From fewer online tools, they would expect to see a decrease in time spent looking for specific information, which can be measured through real-time observation.

Now, has Company X achieved all of their collaboration goals? No. Are they on the right path? I'd argue yes. By understanding how take the "Hard Stuff" and breaking it into manageable, achievable, and measurable pieces, it's only a matter of time before you're in a more well-informed and improved position. So the next time someone tells you that they can't measure something, call their bluff and try to understand what it is that they really want to accomplish.