YETMO

“Message and Measurement – Communicate and Count” (Week of July 17 – 21, 2006)

It never fails to amuse and amaze when I read about challenges in managing effective government operations. The answer is so simple.

All that’s important is contained in the title of this week’s column. Sometimes the most difficult issues are really quite simple at their core.

Many reports I’ve seen this week contain a recurring theme: talking and tracking, managing and measuring, communicating and counting. Excuse the alliteration, but I use it for emphasis and clarity. In short, I use it to pound my point. Oops. There I go again.

Are my points merely banal, bromidic, trite, and pedestrian? Perhaps. But such hackneyed concepts don’t become hackneyed until they are regarded and respected as being commonplace, commonsense and, well, true.

The clichéd and corny can often guide us through troubled waters of management morasses and employee alienation and despair. What better treatment exists than clarity, agreement, and follow-up measurements to ensure that goals are being met.

Years ago I penned an article, which was a take-off on Kenneth Blanchard’s then bestselling book, The One-Minute Manager . It appeared in an IRS publication that was distributed to the agency’s 10,000 managers and management officials. It was titled, tongue-in-cheek, as “The Two-Minute Manager,” recognizing that our world had become a bit more complicated than when Mr. Blanchard authored his work.

So, in keeping with this week’s theme, and trying to stay on message, here are some suggested steps for more effective management, and, thus, better results in governing. Ultimately, they all boil down to communicating goals, and tracking results. It’s that simple.

Of course, simple steps are not always simple to follow. Determining exactly what’s meaningful to measure and then being able to accurately and rightfully track it, well, I concede that that’s not quite as easy. Nevertheless, here’s a prescription. If we can make our goals clear, straightforward, and reasonable, then the likelihood increases of our properly tracking and achieving them.

Good luck. And good managing!