Corporates are focusing on inputs metrics but individuals and schools still don’t!

Who should read?

1. Those who feel that why they their effort does not show results

2. Those who want to find better metrices to measure their skillset

3. Those who are heading on a vacation

The tools to incentivize an employee purely on hours of work, number of calls answered, number of clients engaged, customer survey are getting older. Corporates call these as output metrics, which employees often find ways to “manage” by manipulating input metrics. Example: Offer a free service and sign a client. The employer thus, needs a way to see how an output was achieved. They are spending effort to build systems which capture these inputs on perks offered, money spent on loyalty programs etc.

The way tracking input metri

cs is a powerful tool for achieving corporate goals, it is the same for individual goals. You and I both know: no one opens a business in a day, writes a book over a night, loses weight in 10 days, reaches top B schools with just exam, an escapist, gains weight in 10 days etc. All actions and habits add up. Skill, weight, personality are all outputs, but do we focus enough on inputs?

Let me put it in words that can translate the philosophy into action:

The new-year resolution does not have to be on output: “I want to lose weight (Output)”. One needs to break the output into input metrics on actions of exercise and food and behaviors of consistency. With input metrics the resolution translates to “I want to walk every day”, “I want to eat 1200 calories every day”. If either of the

input focus: exercise, food intake or consistency breaks, output will break.

Thus, the corporates such as Healthify me, GoQii fitness tracker are all tracking your input metrics for you. Next in line are reading input metrics when Kindle or Audible Analytics will tell you what was wrong with your reading and listening habits. They will clearly call out focus issues, spending too much time on one paragraph or chapter etc. These are modern journaling techniques. We need them because we either don’t journal, or d

on’t have organized and honest reflection techniques. As individuals, when we focus on right action and behavioral inputs, we will be able to reflect better on the direction of an output metric. If you are trying to understand why you are not a fast learner, or why Pramod gets promoted faster than you do, why you always chose the wrong boy etc., draw input metrics and see where you are going wrong.

Learnings:

1. Get or create systems to track input metrics.

2. Create goals on input metrics and not output metrics.