MODERN MANAGEMENT
How to test the measurability of corporate and community goals By Stacey Barr
“ So , how do you measure that ?” It ’ s a common question when the time comes to choose measures for the goals in the corporate plan or community plan . Silence usually follows . And then perhaps a halfhearted or half-baked attempt to brainstorm measures . The product is often a list of easy-to-measure operational statistics , or the completion of specific initiatives or activities , or vague indexes that no-one knows how to quantify . They aren ’ t direct evidence – or objective proof - of the result of achieving the goals .
One council has a goal of ‘ Growth and development in the city is sustainably managed .’ But does the measure of ‘ Implementation of the City Plan and Local Government Infrastructure Plan ’ really provide direct evidence that growth and development is sustainable ? Another council has a goal of ‘ A vibrant community that is accessible , safe , healthy , creative and knowledgeable …’ But how exactly do the measures of ‘ community participation at council organised events ’ and ‘ visitation to council facilities ’ give evidence of how safe and healthy and creative and knowledgeable the community is ?
For local government , the challenge of finding powerful performance measures is harder than in other organisations . Local government is complex , and so corporate community goals tend to be very broad . Good measures are therefore hard to pin down . But the solution is not to brainstorm harder . The solution starts before we even utter the words “ So , how do you measure that ?”
14 ModernBusiness October 2016