Metrics and Communication
- Anurag Bahal, Senior Consultant, Infosys
How do we create a common language of Communication and create Team Synergy using metrics?
America’s first billionaire J. Paul Getty said it “I would rather have one percent of efforts of a hundred people than a hundred percent of my own efforts”
Communication - So often when things go wrong, we blame it and classify it on a failure of organization communication. We attribute the underlying fault of poor communications to the organization as a whole. This may be true, but employees – the individuals within the system – also share some of the blame. They have not used metrics to their advantage. Managers are busy; they have many tasks to accomplish within a short period of time. Therefore communications, other than a follow up on a previous quick to-do list issued and assignment of a new To-do list suffices for conversation. Successful organizations strive for transparency and inclusion. Metrics can create an atmosphere of transparency and drive away negative behavior. Here is a potential situation. Say you discover information that will help solve a critical problem in your company. You may wish to share it, but your boss is not keen. Why? Because the information you hold will help a political rival of his. Or the information can be used against that team and its manager. So what can you do about this problem? Use a metrics connection to create a win- win situation for your boss and his adversary. Show how your information will benefit the KPIs of both the managers and highlight only that benefit with the respective manager. In every situation there are common themes and related metrics like customer satisfaction, increased productivity, reduced defects, etc. that will do the trick. Team Synergy. Since people will like to do their own things, there is a need to align them. Align all the ducks in the same row so that they dance together and play together to a beautiful melody. As Citibank ex chief Sandy Weill once put it “When the music is on you got to dance”. The dance won’t look good if the ducks are out of pattern. One way to get the team in pattern is to create a team synergy metrics. Here are a few examples that I have seen working from my experience. On the quandary of measurement, here is an interesting article that I read recently
Share this information with every team member and ask for feedback. Keep management interested and get them talking using these metrics. Use metrics appropriately depending on the inkling of the manager but always have them.
My experience says that if there is one thing that people like in the corporate world, it is Transparency and there can not be any excess of this. Communication issues will be with us always but providing transparency enables individuals to exercise ownership of their problems and in this manner solutions can be found, one person and one team at a time.
The answers to this and similar problems may lie in the metrics and performance management system. What issues are you and your company addressing in your next process improvement project? Keep reading the blog to find a metricized answer.
