Measure and check outcomes together

We’re constantly being told to focus on outcomes. This is not easy nor actionable for many practitioners. In this article series I explain 5 mind-tricks that consistently get your brain and your team thinking outcomes. The mind-tricks are both proven and easy to teach forward.??

The first articles introduced a simple backward-working method, using storytelling to frame outcome orientation and using systems thinking to make customer outcomes rich and measurable. My definition of the customer outcome is?the customer's progress, change, gain, or benefit?which the customer perceives as valuable.?I appreciate this definition is long, but I wanted to make sure I give an impression that the customer outcome can be many things. The common denominators are that the outcomes are for the customer, and that the customer decides what is of value.?

It's time to move from awareness to convincing – to convincing that outcome-orientation is the right thing to do. To believe is a step. To experience is stronger. This is a small trick I picked up from Melissa Perri and I'm loving it.???

Applying the PDCA-cycle to add feedback?

The Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle – also known as the Deming cycle – is a universal cycle that can be used to make processes iterative and adaptive. The PDCA cycle can be found in the Scrum sprint cycle and the scientific method follows the same pattern. The steps of PDCA are planning for an outcome, doing the change, checking the actual results and then finally adjusting ("Acting") the beliefs and methods based on learnings. It can be said that rigor and perseverance in checking the results drives learning and "acting" (the fourth step).??

We can apply the PDCA cycle directly to outcomes. We need to record outcomes to enable checking.??

How to record outcomes in plan stage of PDCA??

Many?organisations?are not outcome-first, but rather plan-first. Teams routinely work on solutions and breakdowns of the planned steps. That's what is default and that's what gets most attention.??

We can gradually shift the meaning of what the P in PDCA means. There's no need to stop the line and change everything into fully outcome-based. Instead of full revamp we can use the feedback and adaptation cycle to reinforce outcome-based target setting. The minimum viable way to starts with the recording the of the expected outcomes in the P-stage.?

?Write down the outcomes right next to the plan of actions. The P of PDCA becomes both the technical solution as well as the customer outcome we are seeking. It likely is that the solution and the technical plan has prominence, but having written down the customer outcome in a measurable way prepares for the crucial step: the checking.??

?As a promoter of outcome orientation, you will have to use a bit of persuasion to get your team to write down the hypothesis of the outcome. People often don’t have the?practise?or the habit of doing that. Your task usually is easy though as I've not heard anybody objecting to writing down the outcome as part of the plan.??

Then it's time to do the work: to create the solution, to iterate and to make what is in the plan. Once we think we've gotten where we planned to get, it is time to check the results in the C-stage of PDCA.?

The?check-stage:?management participation and the four?scenarios?

The trick is simple. Recording outcomes at plan stage allows to review and discuss outcomes explicitly once the work is done. The usual format is having the check-discussion in the team. This time we add few people into the mix. Having a more broad participation allows to reinforce the use of outcomes as the starting point.?

Invite participants from higher management into result sharing and result checking discussions. I don't mean that you should invite all the management. Neither do I suggest to invite the CEO. The most helpful participants from management are team stakeholders: People whose opinion weights. Their level optimally is such high that they no longer have time for detailed problems or solutions, but they have time for and keen interest in discussing the customer outcomes and business impact. I'll simply refer to these people as executives.?

?In my experience?executives?are generally bright and focused people. They are keen on strategy and impact. And they are interested in differentiation and the customers. Discussing and creating outcomes is often the core their job.?The executives are the sounding board and the credible source who rally us to be more outcome driven.??

The joint result checking session can be fit into an hour with plentiful discussion. 30 minutes is a bit pushing it and starts to limit the amount of deeper discussion.?

I can create 4 main scenarios for how the discussion flows. All of the scenarios either reinforce outcomes or give you valuable next steps. I'll expand on the scenarios?

1. The outcome is reached and executives say that the outcome is good progress?

?This is a clear WIN-WIN scenario. We've done the work, we've noticed that we've created an outcome for the customers. The larger?organisation?around the team has seen the same. It is likely that the executives have complemented the team. We've both experienced the way to create outcome and we've gotten a verbal reward for the good work.?

?2. Miss outcome – Win with executives?

?The second scenario is where the planned outcome is not reached. The outcome is either not measured or then the solution created does not create the outcome we wanted. In either case, the executives will likely discuss the outcome and we can leverage their wish for impact. The team again hears the importance of outcomes.??

While we did not get praise in this scenario, the message repeats: we ultimately work to get outcomes.??

Preparing for this scenario involves a bit of work with the executives. Make sure in advance the missing of the outcome will be handled constructively. The best way to prepare for this is to keep the iterations short and bets small. Then the inevitable misses are not a crisis.??

3. Reach outcome – Executives don't care??

The 3rd?scenario is where the team reaches an outcome, but the executives don't care. The team discusses and checks together results and clear outcomes can be observed. There's however a lack of engagement or opinion from the executives.?

A situation where there is outcomes but the larger?organisation?does not care has never yet happened to me. Let's however keep this as plausible. This scenario would imply that we are simply working with the wrong outcomes who nobody else in the company cares for. You know you have strategy and stakeholder engagement work then ahead of you if this happens.?

4. Miss outcome – Executives don't care??

The fourth dismal scenario is that you both miss getting to an outcome, and nobody cares. This implies you have deeper issues.?

Forming habits?

Charles Duhigg has popularised the concept of the habit loop.?His excellent book "Power of Habit"?explains how habits and our routines form.?The science around the habit loops?tells a compelling story of how repeated cycles?move behaviours into fully automatic habits.?The steps of the habit loop are trigger, action and reward. The trick outlined in this article is really about habit-enforcement.??

The habit that we usually find in?organisations?is the problem-solution loop. The three steps of that habit are 1) problem (trigger) 2) solution, plan, implementation, release (action) followed problem solved and happy feeling (reward). It is almost like automation. We routinely solve a lot of problems. Often the customers are happy. That however is not the same as outcome orientation.?

What you want is the reframing into loop of 1) notice possible outcome (trigger) 2) create outcome hypothesis & iterate to solution (behaviour)?followed?by 3) observe outcome and feel good (reward).?

Existing habit loops can be altered by experimenting with the trigger and the reward. The trick of this article does both. The explicit reinforcement of the outcome-checking creates a new social reward. To sustain something, go for the positive habit.??