Yesterday I went to a meeting of the Association for Strategic Planning Atlanta, where some members of a team at Deloitte presented their process for strategic measure selection. One step in the process, after brainstorming measures for each strategic objective, was to put the measures through an evaluation funnel. There were four key criteria for selecting measures:
- Strategic. Does the measure track progress toward achieving the objective?
- Actionable. Will you be able to do anything about it? Will it help you make decisions?
- Operational. Is it something you are able to collect? Can people understand it and do they believe it?
- Economical. Is the cost of collecting the information feasible?
After measures made it through the evaluation funnel, they would be further whittled down until there were 1 or 2 measures for each strategic objective.
Would the measures for your change initiative make it through the funnel?