Fast Company Article, May 1999 Joyce Jacobs

Measure What Matters, Edited by Lucy McCauley, pages 97 - 113, May 1999

The article begins by quoting an old business maxim that says "What gets measured is what gets done". The author goes on to say that that's as relevant today as ever and even though companies may play by different rules today, they still have to have a way to keep score. The article surveys 12 leaders of organizations to identify the metrics that matter the most to them. Then the author asks the reader "What are the measurements that matter to you?" Well, in Extension, the hot button right now for evaluation is "impact statements". Measuring "impact" is very challenging as "impact" does not always occur immediately and sometimes there are a number of reasons an "impact" occurs, so giving credit to a specific program/person isn't always easy.

In Extension, we are always told that we need to do evaluations - or measure the impacts of our programs - but the reality is that most of the time we are so busy going from one program to the next that evaluation is many times a piece that just doesn't happen. Certainly another factor that plays into evaluation is that some of the programming that we do is very hard to evaluate. But, reading the insights from the leaders of these organizations certainly did give some interesting perspective on how other organizations measure their performance. Obviously some of the measurements would have little value in evaluating Extension Programs as their business was very different than ours, but there were a number that would be useful in measuring performance.

A CEO of an airline measured the cost of making a seat available against the bottom line. She talked about how they had worked to keep the ticket price low by doing some non-traditional things - like not serving free food or drink to keep the cost low. It made me wonder if we had ever tried to figure out what our cost per person was in serving the public? Could we somehow measure the number of people that we had served (4-H, school programs, community programs, phones, walk-ins, etc.) and come up with a cost to show our value to the public in terms of what it would cost if they had gone to a private consultant - or a pay for service institution?

"Customer delight" was a metric used by another CEO. I have to say, this is one that I informally use as I figure if the client is happy, I must be doing it right. Of course, customer complaints were another metric used and I am fully aware that they are also important. Like the article says, "When one citizen makes a complaint, four or five others probably feel the same way but don't take the time to complain or don't think that it would do any good". It does appear that we are able to use "customer delights" as impacts when we quote clientele's comments in evaluation, but I haven't seen many people publicly sharing the complaints to measure how we are doing. It was interesting that the comment about the complaints came from a Chief of Police who is funded by public dollars - much like we are - and he went on to say that they (department) not only want to fight crime, but they "want to make life better for people". They have a policy that officers can make on-the-spot decisions to help citizens. For example, if it is raining and an officer sees a woman and kids huddled under an umbrella waiting for a bus, the officer (if he doesn't have a call) can put those people in his car and take them to where they are going. Wow - now that is serving the public with powerful public relations! Like the Chief says, "After all, people like these are the ones who pay our salaries - and who pay for the car the officer is driving." Quite a contrast to the county that I work in where I am not allowed to transport any 4-H Volunteers or members in a county car because of "liability issues".

Another CEO said "Keeping employees happy is the key to long-term success." This company surveys all 7,000 of their employees each year to ask how they felt about working there and what the company could do to make work a better experience. Now, there's one I'd like to see Extension try! Of course, there are so many variables in our organization as we don't all work in one big building - but that doesn't mean that a survey such as this couldn't bring forth some valuable information. I have been in Extension for almost 14 years and I know I've answered lots of surveys, but can't remember any that really focused on employee "happiness" or any that solicited suggestions for making our work environment better.

The president of the Women's National Basketball Association measures game attendance - but more importantly, attracting new customers. I do think that this is something that Extension is becoming more aware of as we compete for funding. Attracting new clientele is especially important in counties like mine where the population base is holding it's own, but only because the immigrant population is replacing the population decline that would otherwise be visible. What this means is that if we are not reaching the immigrant population, that the numbers we serve are declining. This is clearly evident in youth programming as the school enrollment has not declined, but the makeup of the enrollment has change drastically over the years as approximately 50% of the students in grades K-3 are diverse. So, if we are not reaching out to the diverse youth - we are missing out on 1/2 of the youth in the early elementary grades in our largest school district! So, attracting new customers certainly must be a priority for our county.

The comments from the Dean of the London Business School really hit home when he stated that "We're not in the education business, we're in the transformation business." He said that they expect "everyone who participates in a program at the London Business School - whether it's for three days or for two years - to be transformed by the experience." They wanted students to look back on their education as "something that significantly influenced their career and possibly even their entire life". To measure that metric, they were in the process of developing a "transformation-bench marking questionnaire" that will be given to students as they advance through their careers. I have often thought that I would like to follow 4-H members to see what influence 4-H has had on their lives - 5, 10, 15 and even 20 years down the road. I have so many parents and members make comments about the impact 4-H has had on their life, but have never done a formal questionnaire. I really like this metric and I would love to do something like this to measure how our program/I am doing in our efforts to teach young people life skills and develop them into capable, caring and competent young people.

This article didn't give me any suggestions for how to make time to get evaluations done, but it was interesting to see the different metrics that are used in different organizations.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000