Engage Your Team

alarm as habit trigger - cartoon

Building a KPI Habit

By Bernie | August 25, 2022

Why a KPI habit is essential A KPI that is never reviewed or acted upon might as well not exist. Worse than that, an unreviewed KPI is a kind of ‘tax’ on the organisation, a costly piece of information that was never looked at or acted upon. Forming a ‘KPI habit’, particularly for short-term KPIs,…

Tin of spam. Holds the key to report engagement

Report Engagement, 10 essential lessons from spam email

By Bernie | March 25, 2016

I hate spam, so I am reading a book on marketing emails (Email Marketing Rules: A Step by Step Guide to the Best Practices that Power Marketing Success by Chad White) to figure out how to create engaging emails that people actually want to read and open. Reading the list I realised these rules hold…

Getting KPI Buy-In

By Bernie | December 10, 2014

Using the phrase `KPI buy-in’ is probably putting it a bit strongly. For many KPI implementations the best you’re looking for initially is the absence of resistance and compliance in terms of gathering information. Proper buy-in normally only comes after people start to see real value coming from the data. There are a few situations,…

Using KPIs to improve your business

By Bernie | February 11, 2013

I’m often asked how to create KPIs and measures. It’s not a short process, which is why most people end up brainstorming or using existing measures when they are tasked with doing this (check out this article – Six KPI Selection Traps to Avoid to see some of the other pitfalls). The good news is…

Measures, behaviour and the “Cobra Effect”

By Bernie | June 12, 2012

I learned something new yesterday. I heard about the “Cobra Effect”. When Britain ruled India there was a problem identified with the number of [venomous] cobra snakes in the country. The government decided to offer a reward for every dead cobra brought to the authorities.  Initially it had the desired effect, reducing the number of…

Old news? When not to put data in a dashboard or report.

By Bernie | May 25, 2012

Some information can be essential to know on a second-by-second basis (heartrate, stock prices or altitude) other information is naturally slower to change; staff survey results, seasonal totals or audit results, for example. A quick way to devalue a dashboard or report and to turn off readers is to put data in the report that…

Building KPI Engagement

By Bernie | September 15, 2011

KPIs are like gym memberships… KPIs and measures are like scales and gym membership. They are great, but only if you use them (and regularly). No matter how good your management information system is, you must make sure that the team are engaged with it. This means The team use the system regularly to help…

Poor quality rubbish

By Bernie | January 13, 2011

Well intentioned measures on recycling are driving the wrong outcomes.