1 minute read
Teams count what they can when nobody has told them which outcome matters.
Ask leaders what their organisation measures and you mostly hear output: things delivered, work shipped. Ask what single goal all of that serves and some can’t say. Others describe goals that compete with each other.
I don’t think that’s a measurement problem. It’s missing intent. One leader described a service whose measures didn’t track the effect of changes, run by a team with a breaking point.
Outcomes are harder to measure, and leaders say so. You don’t need one perfect goal. Each team needs to know which outcome its work should move, and how it will know if it has. And when two teams’ outcomes clash, someone needs to decide.
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