In Business
The 8 Steps to Build Buy-in to KPIs
By Stacey Barr, The Performance Measurement Specialist
Nov 23, 2009 - 11:08:32 PM

You're not truly implementing performance measurement - nor getting the gains it will deliver - if you don't have your staff, your colleagues and your managers engaged. Nor do you have to wait until they are engaged before you get started!

Adapting John Kotter's process for leading change, which he details in his book "Leading Change", here are 8 steps you can follow, as the performance leader that you are, to engage people in measuring performance:

STEP 1: Find an Urgent Performance Problem

Usually people won't give their time to measuring performance because it's never seen as urgent enough, even if they do think it's important. So create a burning platform: find, point out and fan the flames of a performance problem that needs fixing, like NOW!

STEP 2: Create a Powerful Measures Team

Don't try and lead it alone. You need a support team of influencers in your company organisation to give the performance measurement initiative credibility and fuel.

STEP 3: Describe Your Vision of Performance Measurement Success

People don't care about measures, they care about results. So what are the results you want to get by measuring? How will yours and their world be different if you succeed?

STEP 4: Sell the Vision of Success

You cannot succeed as a performance measurement practitioner unless you have marketing skills. It's one of the most challenging topics to excite people about, and marketing is the means to reframe it to something more enticing than just numbers and graphs.

STEP 5: Expect Resistance, and Be Persistent

You won't get everyone engaged, and there will be people and circumstances that try to slow your progress. Tenacity and persistence (with a smile) is what you'll need along the way. Don't give up!

STEP 6: Start Small & Punchy

Don't aim for a complete corporate performance measurement system if the vast majority of people don't feel engaged in measuring. You'll move faster if you start smaller, on individual performance problems or goals. Momentum will build exponentially as you make progress.

STEP 7: Sell the Performance Wins

Marketing again: and this time it's to make sure you keep showing people the benefits of performance measurement. Talk about the real (measurable!) improvements that have been made by measuring and focusing on what matters. Create hunger for more.

STEP 8: Make Measuring Performance Business-As-Usual

Measurement is actually everybody's job, so make it easier for that to happen. When engagement levels pick up, start making training and templates and other time-saving resources available to support people to measure and improve performance for themselves.

Stacey Barr is a specialist in organisational performance measurement, helping corporate planners, business analysts and performance measurement officers confidently facilitate their organisation to create and use meaningful performance measures with lots of buy-in. Sign up for Stacey's free email tips at www.staceybarr.com/facilitators and receive a complimentary copy of her renowned e-book "202 Tips for Performance Measurement".