Metrics Are Essential

Metrics are sometimes known as 'key measures' or 'quantified parameters' within a department or division of a company. Metrics give an organization a framework for charting its course, the ability to plan how to get there, and a worthy cause for which the team can rally. The backbone of an effective business dialogue should be centered on a set of numeric goals and objectives, to make it known how close the organization is coming to achieving them. This provides context for a discussion about what the group is doing or not doing to fulfill the plan, and offers very valuable insight and learnings for business success.

When a process or activity is measured in an organization, the leadership is then poised to realize savings or increased revenue because options are identified and quantified. Comparisons can now be made between the current process or activity and a similar one in another department, company or industry. Such comparative benchmarking provides powerful results because it usually spurs the competitive nature of a workforce to excel to be "better" or perhaps even to be "the best", or sometimes motivates people to avoid being perceived as inferior or low-quality producers. It is also the measuring of an activity or process that allows realistic goals to be set and pursued.