Make Success Measurable! A Summary By Salah Elbakkous, Sr. Sys. Analyst Douglas K. Smiths book Make Success Measurable!

is all about avoiding the trap of performing activities without a clear idea of why exactly we are doing them. In essence, he argues that to be successful, organizations should not engage in activities for which they have no mechanism for judging whether they are worth doing or continuing. To be successful, organizations, advises Smith, need to set up outcome-based goals instead of activitybased goals. Outcome-based goals are SMAART (Specific, Measurable, Aggressive, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). SMAART goals must have good grammar. Smith defines a goal that has good grammar as one that will have a verb (increase, decrease, etc.), an object, how much, and by when. Douglas Smith recommends 4 types of metrics or yardsticks: 1. Speed/time 2. Cost 3. On spec (according to specification)/expec quality (according to customer expectations) 4. Positive yields (what positive impacts are we trying to accomplish for our customers, for our shareholders, and for ourselves?) Some positive yield metrics are familiar and objective: revenues, profits, and the like. Others are not so familiar. The number of partnering, morale, delighted customers. A good outcome-based goal should have at least one of the first two metrics and at least one of the last two metrics. In tackling the problem of moving from activity-based goals to SMAART goals and in the process gain clarity and specificity that matter most, Smith suggests an exercise that is composed of a series of five how? questions. The following is an example presented by Smith: 1. 2. 3. 4. Challenge How would you know success? How would you know you succeeded in leading the market? How would you know you succeeded at being faster at identifying and meeting customer needs? How would you know you succeeded in reducing the time it takes to introduce new products and increase the commercial success rate of those new products? How would you know you succeeded in cutting the time from idea to product introduction in half while doubling the commercial success rate of new products? Answer Wed do a better job of leading the market. Wed be faster at identifying and meeting customer needs. Wed reduce the time it takes us to introduce new products and increase the commercial success rate of those new products. Well cut the time from idea to product introduction in half while doubling the commercial success rate of new products. For the next 10 ideas that get the go-ahead, well take no more than 3 months to introduce each and at least 4 of them will be commercially successful 1 year after their introduction.

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Douglas Smith also introduces the concept of working arenas which he defines as where people make performance happen in an organization. Smith argues that defining working arenas is important because one cannot set and achieve performance goals when the environment has shifted from the job-department-functionbusiness to the multiple working arenas (process, initiatives, projects, etc.) of todays environment. Smith adds that understanding this concept will enable us to ask the following critical six questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. What is the performance challenge at hand? What outcomes would indicate success at this challenge? What are the working arenas relevant to this challenge? To which of those working arenas do I (or we) contribute? What metrics make the most sense for these working arenas? What SMAART outcome-based goals should we set and pursue for each of these working arenas?