On Output...
Every weekend my son has a football match. Driving back and forth we have time to talk from man to man ;-)
Sometimes he is a starter, sometimes he only plays the second half. Sometimes he scores a goal, sometimes he does not. Sometimes his team wins, sometimes they lose.
That is the nature of football... not even the best players can defy this law.
During one of our rides - my son had played the whole match and scored the game-winning goal - he asked me: "Today you must be very proud of me, right?"
I looked at him and asked: "Why do you think that? I am always proud of you."
His response: "We won, I played the whole match, and I scored the game-winning goal."
I understood his thinking... very much outcome focused.
Winning the game is an outcome.
Playing 50 minutes (at his age they play 2 x 25 minutes) is an outcome.
Scoring the game-winning goal is an outcome.
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There are a lot of people in business that say outcomes are more important than outputs.
I tend to disagree... why?
We cannot control outcomes!
My son cannot control whether he plays the full game or not. This is a decision taken by his coach and it also depends on whether he gets injured during the game or not. His coach might decide to start with a taller and stronger striker instead of my son who is not as tall but fast and technically sophisticated.
My son cannot control whether his team wins... he can run and play well, but his team winning depends on all seven of them playing well and it depends on so many other aspects such as their opponent and of course luck plays a huge role in football.
Finally, my son cannot control whether he will score a goal or not... even Messi and Ronaldo do not score in every single one of their games. For reference: Ronaldo has played in more than 1,100 matches as a professional and scored about 850 goals. This is amazing but far from scoring in every single game.
So why should I measure my son by things he cannot control. Why should we measure our teams and individual contributors by things they cannot control. Why should we measure ourselves by things we cannot control.
Instead... let's focus on the things we can control. Amazon refers to this as "controllable input metrics" instead of "uncontrollable output metrics".
I said to my son: "Of course I am happy when your team wins, when you play the full match, and when you score that game-winning goal... but what makes me proud is how you fight, how you run, how you never ever give up, how you try to be a great teammate, and that you pick yourself up after a loss."
I continued: "I - and you should too - focus on the things that you can control not the things that are outside of your control. You control to train hard and often, you control to pass the ball to the better positioned teammate instead of trying to score yourself, you control whether you cheer from the sidelines for your team despite being disappointed that you are not playing."
He looked at me with big eyes... and said: "You are right... let's focus on what we can control. Now, Baba... you control whether you take me to this famous Doner Kebab place or not."
We both started laughing... and yes, I took him to that famous Doner Kebab place ;-)
L?sungskatalysator, visueller Enthusiast und dr?lfzigfach akkreditierter Trainer & Coach für den Flow von Mensch und Organisation. ??GELEBTER, bleibender, organischer Arbeitsfluss mit signifikantem messbaren Unterschied.
1 年I like your story so much. What we can control is our own behavior and our reactions. Do we deserve a public hero status only due won games? I think you focused perfectly to the sustainble wins and a "hero" or "loser"-state doesn′t depend on others perspective. Using your analogy-role-models - is Messi better with Inter Miami only based on more goals in comparison with PSG? He seems more relaxed and less stressed which probably leads to a more luckily behavior. Higher trust in ourselves is the precondition to create the difference again and again. Thank you - love it!
"The General Theory of Management" - development and implementation. CEO & Founder "Armenian Academy of Management". Fast, non-contextual and large-scale organizational changes.
1 年Everyone should do their own thing. 1. The coaching staff is responsible for the result of the whole game, a particular player is responsible for the performance of his role, including the quality of the implementation of coaching instructions. The Organization has the same story. Managers as a special group are responsible for the final result, and Technical Specialists are responsible for the quality performance of their duties at the local level. CEOs and owners are responsible for building a Management System. 2. A qualitatively constructed Management System (in accordance with the Objective Laws of the Organization) that allows you to direct the efforts of each employee to maximize "outcomes". Modern Management Systems are not only not built in accordance with the Objective Laws of the Organization, they are usually created spontaneously as a result of inter-functional war. Therefore, Managers are trying to shift their responsibility to Technical Specialists. It's simple, it's necessary for everyone to do their own thing and be responsible for it.
Empowering organisations to strike a path through changing markets | Executive, revenue operations, go to market, product, commercial, strategy and transformation, ex Accenture
1 年Agree with you for outcomes that rely on many combinations of outputs. Profit is one of those. However, what individuals can control (and change) in most circumstances is the quality of the outputs they have direct control over or have a majority influence over. In many cases these quality measures are outcomes - just not ultimate outcomes - and one lens through which we can measure progress. As the coach of my son’s football team it’s important to the team to recognise outcomes like improvements in passing accuracy, keeping possessione, etc irrespective of the game result. This helps the team maintain their own intrinsic motivations for personal and team improvement.
Agile Coach at Takeda Pharmaceuticals | Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, CPCC | ICF ACC | Organizational Catalyst | Design Thinking and Product Champion Coach | Pragmatic Utopian & Metamodern Thinker
1 年Wonderful post, thank you. It's also a good example for why tools like OKRs are still misunderstood: Having an Objective is important and necessary to create emotions and the will to do more than we thought we can (winning the cup). But like you said - the true work lies in actions. But figuring out what actions (should I improve my condition, my dribbling skills, my cornering, etc) is in that intricate relationship with the Objective. That's why in OKRs figuring out the most effective Key Results (you measures against action) is so relevant - and tricky! Only if you understand this emerging causal relationship between your leading indicators (KRs) and the intended outcomes (Objectives) you can start working on the right initiatives (what is the outcome of a great OKR session - knowing what to do next). Since this is still more a discovery than in football you will have to revise those KRs and initatives often. What you really beautifully pointed out is that you will always have a good portion of entropy in your system. All we can do is try to influence the probabilities to get closer to the outcomes and be awake and aware of the systems dynamics! I think that's were Ronaldo and Messi are really good at: Understanding their Game.