Our down economy, the Wall Street fiasco, and our resulting and natural old brain fear of a catastrophic future leave us in a position to ask the question: how do we do things differently going forward? If your business is down, your normal metrics are probably scary. It is a perfect time to rethink what your metrics mean and how they are helping or hindering your business.
Metrics by definition are focused on the past. A picture of how we DID can be clear from data gathering and analysis. This past perspective, however, can be confusing, demotivating, and debilitating. Consider instead these five suggestions of how to refocus and stop driving from your rear-view mirror.
Recognize it as old brain energy.
When we focus on the past to the detriment of the future, we are likely to have a good deal of old brain involvement. The first step is to recognize whether this is true. If you have any emotional energy about the metrics that represent last week, month, or year (“Profits are down!” “Scrap costs are skyrocketing!”), then take a break. Your emotional investment in these stories will sabotage your ability to move forward at your best.
You can’t breathe life into the dead past.
The moment you ask the question “how do we get this number up?” you are tripping over your old brain’s protective mechanism. You don’t want this past to be dead, you want to change it. Shaking the dead body of profit metrics (or any others) is as futile as it sounds.
Imagine a thriving future.
Can you envision what it will take to reach a better result? Are your customers happy with what you produce and how you interact with them?
Does your product or service meet an important need?
Is there value in what you are doing for someone? Who?
These questions can lead to a picture of prosperity, a first step in determining how to act to get there. Thinking about how to get profits up is futile because there is no one action on one person’s part to do so. Profit is the applause you receive when you are doing the right things.
Pick one.
Of all the ideas you have for getting to your envisioned future, pick one and get after it. Pay attention to it. See if you can determine how the new actions you are taking - and yes, it will take something new to get something different - are making a difference. If you don’t like what you see, don’t throw it out too quickly. Sometimes you have to trudge uphill before you can see the view.
Help everyone understand where you are headed and why.
It is always easier to be on a winning team, so current times are hard. Help people see that your vision and plans can lead to their being part of a winning team.
Just like “close” only counts in horseshoes, taking a rear-view perspective only works as a source of information, not action.
By Diane Marentette and Richard Trafton, Ph.D., authors of “A New Brain for Business” and founders of The New Brain for Business Institute, www.newbrainforbusiness.com, where they translate good science into good business.
