The current banking royal commission and other recent corporate failures have really highlighted how inadequate the current approach to KPI’s typically is – many simply drive unethical, criminal, greedy, self-centered behavior, all of which are unsustainable in the longer term

If we really want a better outcome perhaps we need to include KBIs (Key Behaviour Indicators) amongst our key indicators.Whilst there are lots of articles around at present suggesting we abolish KPIs, I think we just need to rethink them and include indicators for:

• ethical behaviour – behaviour that delivers shared value and reduces greed
• supporting & motivating staff using empowerment and enablement and reducing the often-misguided reliance on financial incentives & bonuses. We could write a whole series of articles on misguided incentive schemes and give many examples!!!
• focusing on customers’ interests (because without customers we don’t exist) instead of shareholder/executive short term or selfish interests

Making this change can have profound effects on your results. So let me share a story about a very large enterprise committed to BBB Advisory methods (over 600 FTE, over $2.5 Billion in revenue) who added a  range of KBI’s to the Performance Plans for their leadership team and included them in their Business Plan.  It is fair to say there were a number of naysayers around when they did. People who clearly had no understanding of “people power” or simply did not realise why BBB Advisory makes such a point of the “E” element of their SPEC business improvement model. The KBI’s they adopted and were prepared to be accountable for were:

• Promote a Culture of Empowered Decision Making
• Lead Customer Experience Programme
• Contribute to CX Culture & Values Programmes
• Investment in our People and their Careers
• Support Improved Customer Feedback Initiatives

So, what did have they achieve with this change in focus?? Since adopting these measures they have seen a remarkable turnaround across most indicators including:

• Massive reduction in OH&S incidents
• A big drop in unplanned leave
• Reduced employee turnover
• Sigificant increases in productivity leading to a halving of customer wait times
• Substantial improvements in financial performance – over $3 million in cost savings
• Widespread process improvement and innovation Significant red tape reduction outcomes Over 90% of customers providing feedback ranking their experience as “Satisfied” or “Very Satisfied”
• Sector leading engagement scores

For those readers familiar with the “iceberg of ignorance” (See attached) this approach connected the tip of the iceberg to the base!!

Setting, monitoring & delivering on such KBI’s has simply help transform the enterprise. If you would like to know more the BBB team can show you how applying a similar model to your business can deliver outcomes that will positively transform your business results.

Perhaps if enough of us do it, we can change the corporate landscape overall