A World where 'values' are 'valued' - Rewarding 'behaviours' ... not 'results'

[February 16th 2022]

There is an age old saying that "you get what you measure" ... and it's so true!

And for this reason we have to be extremely careful as to "what we measure"! ... particularly when such measures are incentivised! Enterprises today mainly measure 'results', i.e. 'outputs', and these mostly comprise financial results and target dates, e.g. profits, revenues, costs, delivery dates. The huge problem with this is that it guides people to 'cheat', to 'hit the numbers' at any cost ... often to the detriment of customers, the frustration of front-line staff and also to the long term viability of the enterprise (e.g. selling products that don't do what you say, delivering poor products and service just to meet targets).

Many years ago Dr. W.E. Deming explained to world the risk of such actions, and all the unintended consequences associated with such actions (e.g. staff demotivation, reduced productivity, reduced innovation and creativity and enterprise/industry-wide failures). The manufacturing sector was relatively successful in picking up on this (as the West tried to follow world-leading Japanese companies who had wholeheartedly adopted the teachings of Dr. W.E. Deming). However, the service sector has been much slower to respond, due in part to the fact that many service enterprises didn't appreciate how the same fundamental principles also applied to services (n.b. with certain operating practices being naturally different).

Today the world is moving quickly, and at an ever increasing pace ... and future practice is building upon (and moving on from) the foundations/principles laid down by Dr. W.E. Deming many years ago. We are now moving beyond the idea of be careful how we measure (and incentivise) outputs/results, to a new world where one focuses upon measuring (and incentivising) behaviours! There's a brilliant video from Simon Sinek, someone who inspires me greatly, which points to this future and I've provided a link to it here.

The Good Turns Foundation's mission is highly aligned to this, with it's mission of 'creating a world where good is valued and people and communities thrive' ... and this includes thriving enterprise too! The main 'measures' the Good Turns Foundation is 'measuring and rewarding' are ones that measure 'good behaviours', doing good for others, for communities and the planet (e.g. Good Points®,  Volunteer Points®, Environment Points®). The key here is that they are all "measures of behaviour", not output, and it's supported by many more unique and meaningful measures which are part of the overall Good Turns® portfolio of measures (which measure many other behaviours too).

The world is changing at an ever increasing rate and the Good Turns Foundation is playing it's part in helping to create this future ... a better future ... a world where 'values' are 'valued' and people, communities (and enterprise) thrive!

David Clift, Founder of the Good Turns Foundation

© Good Turns Foundation 2022    [GTF16022022_04]