An analytical angel loses its wings every time a project, campaign, or initiative gets kicked off without having proper success measures defined. And a success measure is (should be) one or more outcome-oriented KPIs. And, in order for a metric to be a KPI, it HAS has to have a *target* set for it.
It’s that last bit—aligning on and documenting targets for KPIs—where many organizations continue to struggle. I get it. It can be scary to set a target: it’s a requirement to “predict the future” with a (generally unwarranted) fear that a missed target will spell career doom.
The funny thing is that setting targets can be a quick, powerful, and productive mechanism for getting a team aligned on their expectations for an investment. Clear that first hurdle of getting agreement that targets must be set, and then the technique described in this video—cheekily dubbed “Mini Wisdom of the Crowds”—can quickly become an efficient and impactful norm. The technique is simple: it’s just “getting all the stakeholders to independently propose a target and then sharing and discussing them.”
Why does it work? A few reasons:
– First, it creates a “we’re all in this together” environment (”I have no idea what the target should be, but, if everyone else has to propose one, I’ll be a team player and proposed one, too.”).
– Second, it taps into some light competitiveness (”I need to at least apply some reasonably defensible logic to get to the number I came up with.”)
– Finally, it gets the ball rolling—getting all parties thinking about what a reasonable result would be becomes a jumpstart to a discussion about how success will be defined.
Best of all? It’s flexible! We’ve done this in in-person meetings, using Zoom/Teams chat, and even using Typeform surveys.
