My grandfather used to tell me, “measure twice, cut once.” And though he was talking about physical construction, your shift from people management to measuring what matters reminds of this advice.

Measurements do a few things for us that make a world of difference: (a) provide objective facts about important parts of our work, (b) record data points for future comparison, and (c) help guide variance analysis when results aren’t what we expected.

I love statistical process control charting (SPC, or run charts) for monitoring process, but more importantly, find the conversations about assumptions, predicting performance and analyzing outcomes to be some of the most powerful grounds for building a shared vision of what the group is capable of in days ahead.

Good luck in your adventures in measurement! ;)