Page 52 - Performance Leadership

Chapter 3 Measurement Drives Behavior • 41

which actions need to be put in place to prevent dysfunctional behav-
ior from happening.
In short, you need to understand the behavioral context of metrics.
Current best practices do not do that. In different organizational cul-
tures, people have different ways of dealing with performance man-
agement. In very contract-oriented cultures, the numbers speak for
themselves. Failing to make targets may impact on variable salaries or
even lead to dismissal. In more relationship-oriented cultures, numbers
are there to track the progress of people and to direct contributions of
the group to places where these are most needed. Failure to understand
different organizational cultures will lead to unexpected behaviors and
very likely to dysfunctional behaviors.
Not understanding the behavioral aspects of performance manage-
ment also has a negative impact on the business case for performance
management. Business cases are often based on a desired return on
investment, and they are usually quantitative in nature. However,
although a return on investment may be significant in terms of reduced
cost or increased revenue, if the organization does not accept the way
in which an initiative is rolled out, it will not be a success.

Driving the Right Behaviors

In every organization, one of the most important success factors is col-
laborative behavior—a synergy that makes the contributions of individ-
uals into more than just the sum of its parts. However, it is remarkable
that cooperation within an organization generally remains underex-
posed in management reports. One of the reasons for this is that coop-
eration is generally considered not quantifiable and therefore cannot be
measured. However, the results of collaboration are easy to measure. 8
Think about the following examples:

• First-time-right percentage of “triple play” installations in a
telecom company that offers telephony, high-speed internet,
and television through its various divisions
• Tracking the use of an expertise location system that helps
engineers find colleagues who may be able to answer difficult
questions in a photocopier service company
• Cross-sell percentage of products in a large bank