What’s Your System Improvement Index?

Most systems operate under some sort of performance metric – service uptime, number of users, needs met, revenue growth, new feature deployment, incident resolution time…that sort of thing.

Whether they’re set by management, agreed upon by the Folks That Matter™, or simply targets for continuous improvement, metrics exist.

Sometimes, they’re overtly stated – written down in strategy documents or OKRs.

And other times they’re not formalised in this way.

Don’t mistake the absence of documented goals to mean non-existence of those goals (see also: Your Real Job)..

You might think your system has no performance metrics because nothing is in writing or has ever been formally discussed – but all you have is no clear agreement as to what your system’s performance metrics are.

Whether you’re a founder, product manager, engineer or other contributor, your system can do one of two things – meet expectations or disappoint. The absence of clear, agreed, preferably documented performance metrics merely means you don’t know when the system is underperforming.

If your system lacks clearly defined metrics, stop here – the key takeaway is to discuss and agree metrics and targets, even if just on your own team – so you know when the system is failing to hit the mark.

For most mature systems and products, it’s around this time of year teams analyse performance against goals – 15% improvement in latency, 11% increase in conversion, 7% bump in NPS…that sort of thing.

My question is this:

“To meet your system’s goals, how much do your collective assumptions and beliefs need to improve?”

It’s a difficult question without an obvious answer – 0%? In line with the target metrics? Double digit percentage gains across the board?

I don’t know the answer, and you may not either – but we’d likely both agree your organisation’s mindset and culture can always evolve.

Tools like organisational psychotherapy can help reveal limiting assumptions and facilitate shifts in collective beliefs.

So let me ask plainly:

“To meet your goals this year, how much do you need your organisation’s culture to develop?”

Pinning down an exact number isn’t straightforward, but it certainly isn’t zero.

One suggestion to quantify this:

Conduct regular culture and maturity assessments, and use the year-on-year improvement as an indicative ‘System Improvement Index’ benchmark for collective thinking shifts.

Of course, you may already do this, in which case view it as validation you’re tracking evolutions in organisational worldview.

If not, there are many good culture evaluation frameworks out there. Use one aligned to your organisation’s design and purpose. We have one we can share too – just ask!

Let me close by asking once more:

To meet next year’s targets, how much do your collective assumptions and beliefs need to improve? What’s your system’s ‘Improvement Index’?