Measure the Unmeasureables
What would it take for you to become a better home cook? A better film maker? A better parent? The path to "better" can seem unmeasurable and for that reason, really daunting to lots of us. What if you had a really simple tool for improvement that used fake measurement? And hey, what if it was fun?
Incremental ImprovementI have a lot of hobbies. I write blog posts (see?), I write poetry, I make stop-motion animation, I bake, and there's probably some more besides those. Keeping a full time job, maintaining a relationship and maintaining some hobbies is a challenge. Yeah, sure, my life is a challenge. So is everyone else's, but that's not my point. My point is that I really like learning new things and sometimes that's daunting given the time I have to commit.
So here's my trick for how to keep from getting overwhelmed by my own life: scaled questions. What's that you say? You don't know what scaled questions are? Of course you do. How good are you at baking break on a one to ten scale where at one all you can do is spell "bread" and at ten you own a successful bakery? Seriously, where are you on that scale? I'll wait.
Now, what would it take you to improve that score by one number? Let's get tactical here. If you're at a one (you can spell "bread"), you might get to a two by baking some refrigerator cookies (the kind where the dough is already made). Voila! You improved your baking skill and you get to celebrate your new learning with cookies!
The point here is that it doesn't matter whether you and I agree on the definition of 1 or 2 (or 9). The point is that you decide how to change by one incremental step. Suddenly something you've always wanted to learn (painting, rock climbing, singing) doesn't feel overwhelming, it feels entirely doable. So here's mine: Book writing: On a one to ten scale, I give myself a 6 because I've written a non-fiction book. I can get myself to a 7 by completing the outline for another non-fiction book, OR by completing an outline of a fiction book.Bread baking: I've been practicing, so I'm going to give myself a 4 in bread baking because I've mostly made one kind of loaf several times in a row. I could get to a 5 by making bagels (I have the recipe but haven't tried yet).Form poetry: I've written free verse (non-rhyming) poetry for years, and am often daunted by rhyming although I've done it a little. So I give myself a 3 for form (or rhyming) poetry and I could get to a 3.25 by writing just 4 lines in a new form (like iambic pentameter). See what I did with a quarter of a point there? My hobby, my rules.All of these are short, easy to achieve, and easy to wrap my head around which makes them fun.
Why, you ask, is this part of a blog about measurement? I'm glad you asked. Because nearly ALL measurement is relevant mostly (or only) in context. The key performance indicator for customer satisfaction isn't really measuring "satisfaction" which is a complex human emotion, it's measuring (probably) answers to a survey.
So then, on a one to ten scale, how good are you at measurement in your organization? How could you improve by one number?
Incremental ImprovementI have a lot of hobbies. I write blog posts (see?), I write poetry, I make stop-motion animation, I bake, and there's probably some more besides those. Keeping a full time job, maintaining a relationship and maintaining some hobbies is a challenge. Yeah, sure, my life is a challenge. So is everyone else's, but that's not my point. My point is that I really like learning new things and sometimes that's daunting given the time I have to commit.So here's my trick for how to keep from getting overwhelmed by my own life: scaled questions. What's that you say? You don't know what scaled questions are? Of course you do. How good are you at baking break on a one to ten scale where at one all you can do is spell "bread" and at ten you own a successful bakery? Seriously, where are you on that scale? I'll wait.
Now, what would it take you to improve that score by one number? Let's get tactical here. If you're at a one (you can spell "bread"), you might get to a two by baking some refrigerator cookies (the kind where the dough is already made). Voila! You improved your baking skill and you get to celebrate your new learning with cookies!
The point here is that it doesn't matter whether you and I agree on the definition of 1 or 2 (or 9). The point is that you decide how to change by one incremental step. Suddenly something you've always wanted to learn (painting, rock climbing, singing) doesn't feel overwhelming, it feels entirely doable. So here's mine: Book writing: On a one to ten scale, I give myself a 6 because I've written a non-fiction book. I can get myself to a 7 by completing the outline for another non-fiction book, OR by completing an outline of a fiction book.Bread baking: I've been practicing, so I'm going to give myself a 4 in bread baking because I've mostly made one kind of loaf several times in a row. I could get to a 5 by making bagels (I have the recipe but haven't tried yet).Form poetry: I've written free verse (non-rhyming) poetry for years, and am often daunted by rhyming although I've done it a little. So I give myself a 3 for form (or rhyming) poetry and I could get to a 3.25 by writing just 4 lines in a new form (like iambic pentameter). See what I did with a quarter of a point there? My hobby, my rules.All of these are short, easy to achieve, and easy to wrap my head around which makes them fun.
Why, you ask, is this part of a blog about measurement? I'm glad you asked. Because nearly ALL measurement is relevant mostly (or only) in context. The key performance indicator for customer satisfaction isn't really measuring "satisfaction" which is a complex human emotion, it's measuring (probably) answers to a survey.
So then, on a one to ten scale, how good are you at measurement in your organization? How could you improve by one number?
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