There’s a reason why all sports and games have a way of keeping score. The game is pointless without it. As humans we have a natural urge to do better next time in the things we care about, whether that be pro-sports, music, gaming or any other activity we choose to participate in.
So when people go to work, a way of keeping score of how well they’re doing can be a really powerful motivator in their daily jobs.
When people think about performance metrics or Key Performance Indicators at work, they often feel that those metrics are either there as a big stick to hit them with or so high level that they’re irrelevant to the work that they do. This can lead to a disengagement with those metrics, ways of gaming the system and a very narrow focus on what will land them in the least trouble.
What if everyone in your company had a way of keeping score in their own roles? And what if that way of keeping score was as motivational as the score they keep in whatever sport, activity or pastime they engage with outside of work?
It’s true that one of the functions of performance measures is to correct poor performance, but what if we could also use those measures to encourage, celebrate and reward good performance?
The other thing to understand in all of this is that if your team don’t have formal measures in place, they’ll make up their own, informal ones – and those may not be in line with what you’re expecting from them. Have you ever found that if you’re doing a basic task – painting a large wall for example – you break it into sections and make a game of how you go about it? Many people do this to make the mundane more interesting. Your team will do this in their day jobs too if you don’t help them set up goals and measures that are important to them and to the company too.
These measures could be as simple as measuring right first time performance or positive customer feedback. And no role needs to be drowning in performance measures or they become ineffective. The trick, though, is to tap into a metric that individuals can be proud of and improve on. For example, Right First Time metrics often encourage diligence, capability and pride in a job well done, as well as being highly effective for the company. Number of Customers Spoken To metrics may just encourage a poor customer experience and a focus on volume rather than quality which can also be very demotivational to the team member after a short time.
Take a look at how your team members are measuring their daily performance. Can you and they come up with 3 things they could measure that would improve how they do their jobs, benefit the company and have them leave every day with a feeling that they’ve done well (or would like to do better tomorrow)? Generally it’s good to do this by role rather than individual – 3 people doing the same role should generally have the same metrics.
And remember, this is all about showing your team, your customers and suppliers and the rest of the company What Good Looks Like – put a score on it and they may even be tempted to beat it …
