12.28.07
What to measure
This is my response to Shana Ratner, whose work I admire, on what to measure. I have a house in Sonoma California. I noticed today two shops that seem to be doing well. one was consignment furniture, another was consignment couture; people selling their furniture and their high end, glittery gowns and things. I think, in light of the wonderings about recessions, peering under rugs for canaries in the mine, that those two shops numbers (number of consignment sellers, avg. dollar of items sold, throughput of retail stock, etc. factored against new car sales, by price, and new home sales, by price, factoring in time on the market for home sales and slicing in forclosures or other signs of housing distress,and then doing a similar slice by price and item in local newspaper classified ad line sales from individuals those are measurements that would be meaningful and that would let me know whether, for example, i’d want to start a competing newspaper here, or some other business. i believe in measurement where there is an outcome that results in more money flowing or more perception of trends and value over time. i believe in measuring soft things, like you do in a failing community’s assets. in social enterprise, it’s been mostly academic hand jive. additive friction without additive value. measurement should increase the flow of value, not be a net cost.
Samantha Beinhacker said,
December 28, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Interesting blog Kevin. I agree 1000% that we need to measure value, looking at the stories, soft data, and constituents’ voices to glean impact and outcomes.
Yet, most people would say that those things you outline above are “hard measurements”… so, may I ask: what would “soft meausrements” look like?
Anybody else want to weigh in?
Sam
kevindjones said,
December 29, 2007 at 12:15 am
well, those things measured i mentioned are quantifiable, traceable to purchasing and investment patterns. attitude shifts are soft items to measure. which can be done through media and advertising content analysis.
xigi.net » Blog Archive » What to measure said,
December 29, 2007 at 1:43 am
[…] I’m having a conversation here about what to measure. I understand measurement as a way to make money flow more easily; pointing to value. Metrics that make giving feel like investing detract from the value received by giving; it’s similar to commodification and luxury goods in its dynamic. What to measure about social impact? Something that by the process of measurement would not detract from the perceived value of the person or institution putting forward the money. The first bar for metrics to hit is that they do not by their implementation detract from value. Trackback […]
Lewkowitz said,
January 8, 2008 at 3:20 am
I think there are couple of reasons for measurement that are important: management/governance; and impact.
In terms of impact, I been wondering lately if maybe the most important measure is the perspective of the community being served. Is it improving the situation being addressed? Are there other solutions that might be more effective? What are the other impacts of the action of the organization in that community and its spin-off effects? Of course this also calls into question the overall level of community engagement in the organization and the pressure they feel to innovate and adopt best practices from elsewhere. Maybe working to improve those activities might be easier than trying to put meaningful metrics on impact?
As for management and governance, tracking metrics that highlight operational effectiveness and indicate incipient instability respectively are critically important but I think might be something different than measuring impact.
Thoughts?
kevindjones said,
January 9, 2008 at 3:17 am
so who says it’s being served? surveys? that’s a pretty hard thing to measure.