Four Ways Leaders Can Measure & Monitor Progress
- Brook Rolter
- Oct 9
- 7 min read
Updated: Nov 18
... and why only one of them changes culture and creates impact.
Leaders want clear evidence that time, money, and effort are producing meaningful impact — not just activity.
But most of what passes for “progress measures” only tracks motion, not results.
This article presents the webcast where Stacey Barr, Kathy Letendre, and I explored the four types of progress measures, how and when to use each, a framework for balancing activity and impact, and the one type of progress measure that drives alignment, capability building, and meaningful improvement.
Prefer to read instead of watching? The summary below captures the key ideas from the webcast in a fast, practical guide you can use immediately.
📘 Download the 8-slide summary of the framework.
A concise, visual reference for the framework and each of the four types of progress measures.
The Four Types of Progress Measures
Progress happens in two areas - the results we want to achieve and the activities we perform to reach them.
Progress also happens across two time frames - in the current moment and over time.
We want progress right now through our day-to-day effort, and we also want progress over time for improving our capabilities and level of performance.
These two dimensions create a framework with four types of progress measures that balance immediate work with capability building, and activity with actual results.
Quota Measures: Task Completion & Daily Discipline
Quota Measures quantify task completion as the amount of a quota to perform within a period of time. Frequently Quota Measures serve as targets for the tasks to be performed by individuals on a daily or weekly basis.
Examples include:
A vehicle safety inspector might have a quota to perform five inspections per day.
Teachers trying to improve learning outcomes might try 10 new approaches per class.
A clinician may have a quota of twenty telehealth consultations per week.
Quota Measures show direct and immediate task completion and are best charted as simple tallies or bar charts comparing actual completion against the quota.
When implemented and managed well, Quota Measures:
Provide a focus for daily efforts.
Build discipline for getting tasks done.
Provide quick feedback.
If leaned on too heavily or misused, Quota Measures can:
Drive people to hit short-term targets that hold little strategic value.
Encourage gaming the system or unhealthy competition.
Shift focus to numbers and away from quality.
Quota Measures play a necessary part in measuring, understanding, and managing progress. They are of most value when set after the disciplines and habits needed to achieve the organization’s strategic direction are known and defined.
👉 The key to improving Quota Measures is designing tasks to be as efficient as possible.
Activity Measures: Work Volume and Activity Over Time
Activity Measures quantify the volume of work completed as a level of activity or output produced over time.
Unlike Quota Measures, Activity Measures track work volume over time. They are often used to quantify the number of tasks or process outputs produced over time by teams or business units.
Examples include:
A Social Security department tracking the number of welfare applications processed each week.
A college monitoring the number of tutoring sessions conducted every month.
A medical practice might count the number of diagnostic tests performed each month.
Line charts are effective for displaying Activity Measures, but XmR charts or “SMART Charts” are the most accurate for identifying signals of change and quantifying gaps between the current performance and performance targets.
When properly used, Activity Measures provide insight for improving output productivity over time. Improving productivity is helped by standardizing, streamlining, and automating work processes.
For example, if a team wants to increase welfare applications processed weekly, they might standardize criteria for prioritizing applications and make the process more efficient.
When used well, Activity Measures:
Relate directly to the work and are easy to understand,
Form the basis for measuring and improving productivity, and
Assist in matching resources and schedules to fluctuating workloads.
Activity Measures also present challenges because they:
Don’t provide any direct evidence of impact,
Lack valid meaning without the context of intended results,
Can overemphasize productivity at the expense of quality, and
Can be misleading or misinterpreted without companion measures for complexity or difficulty of the work.
When implemented and managed well, Activity Measures support result-oriented measures and are used alongside other measures that add relevant context about complexity.
Activity Measures help monitor and improve productivity to make the most of limited resources and manage capacity to achieve the organization’s strategic direction.
👉 The key to improving Activity Measures is standardizing, streamlining, and automating work processes.
Status Measures: Results-to-Date Snapshot
Status Measures quantify results achieved to date. They provide a cumulative total at the current point in time, relative to an overall target to be reached.
Familiar examples include:
The total number of patients enrolled for telehealth services.
Dollars raised in a fundraising campaign.
Since Status Measures provide a snapshot of progress, cumulative charts are the best way to visualize them. Column charts or fill bars (thermometer or goal charts) show amounts or percentages to emphasize results to date without implying trends (which Status Measures do not provide).
By themselves, Status Measures don't provide enough information for learning, making improvement decisions, or correcting course. Achieving a targeted level on time requires insight provided from other progress measures – are we doing the right things, in the right amount, in the right time.
For example, to increase the likelihood of reaching a student attendance rate of at least 90% for the year, the education department would need to learn from other progress measures and act on the factors that most affect student attendance.
When implemented and managed well, Status Measures:
Are straightforward and relatable.
Present how far we've come and how far we have to go to reach our target.
Are difficult to misinterpret or misread.
But Status Measures also have inherent limitations as they:
Do not provide insight on the pace or direction of progress.
Encourage short term reactions instead of sparking deeper understanding and thoughtful corrections.
Do not show the variation, patterns, or signals of change needed for effective course correction.
We want Status Measures to give us a big picture snapshot of current results and the remaining distance to our strategic goals. But if not used alongside Performance Measures of achieving desired results, Status Measures are insufficient.
👉 The key to improving Status Measures is improving task and activity performance.
Performance Measures: Achieving Results & Improving Capability
Performance Measures quantify the capability and performance of a business process or system over time. While Activity Measures track effort or output, Performance Measures track results.
Performance Measures track organizational results such as:
The speed and pace at which products are produced.
The level of satisfaction we create for customers.
The product or service quality our processes produce.
Examples of Performance Measures include:
A Transportation Department measuring “Serious Road Crash Rate per month”, (crashes per 1,000 miles traveled), providing insight into the safety of the road system.
Elementary schools tracking the “% Students Meeting Literacy Standards by quarter”, measuring how well the school system’s curriculum and teaching processes achieve student literacy.
Hospitals measuring the “% Patients with Unplanned Readmissions by week”, reflecting the hospital’s ability to treat patients effectively the first time.
For visualization, XmR or “SMART Charts” are the best way to display Performance Measures. They quantify results over time, illustrate when real change occurs, and show how quickly performance gaps are being closed.
When implemented and managed well, Performance Measures:
Focus on results.
Yield a strong ROI for their creation and use.
Show changes in performance over time, providing insight for timely adjustment or course correction.
Help identify root causes that, when fixed once, permanently improve performance.
Highlight organizational capability and create leverage for long-term success.
But they also present challenges because meaningful Performance Measures:
Are harder to identify when goals are intangible or vaguely articulated without clearly defined results.
Require a different way of thinking and approach.
May require data the organization does not yet track or collect.
May be influenced, rather than controlled, by individuals or teams, leading to tension between exercising influence and a pressure to hit targets.
Improving organizational capability and performance involves rethinking and redesigning business processes that have the largest impact on desired results.
For example, to reduce unplanned patient readmissions, patient education is crucial. Head nurses in each specialization unit could review and update their patient education processes to ensure they align with the latest research, improving the hospital system’s capability.
Performance Measures are most valuable when designed to provide direct evidence of the results defined or implied by the organization’s strategic goals and direction. They reveal leverage points for improving organizational processes and systems in a way that achieves strategic goals.
Performance Measures enhance the organization’s ability to consistently achieve strategic results over time. They strengthen the inherent capability of the systems and processes that deliver them.
👉 The key to improving Performance Measures is improving organizational capability and process design.
Bringing It Together: A Balanced Approach to Measuring Progress
This Progress Measurement framework provides a structure for monitoring and managing progress for both activities and results in the current time, and over time.
Quota Measures quantify task completion.
Activity Measures quantify work volume over time.
Status Measures quantify cumulative results achieved to date.
Performance Measures quantify performance and capability over time.
Together, these four types of progress measures offer a comprehensive view of performance and progress toward organizational goals.
While each has its role, Performance Measures are the most powerful for achieving strategic direction and cultivating a strong performance culture.
Why? Because Performance Measures:
Focus on Results and Impact by shifting attention to long-term results and impact.
Align Effort and Activity making it easier to choose and use the right Activities Measures.
Provide Context for designing the daily disciplines and Quota Measures with the right focus.
Leverage Smarter Work by uncovering high impact points and encourage working smarter rather than just working harder.
Build lasting leverage.
A balanced approach helps organizations move beyond tracking motion to measuring meaningful progress toward strategic success.
For any organization to perform, we need to monitor and manage both activity and impact. By improving the balance among the four types of progress measures, leaders can make sure the right activities are leading to the desired impacts.
Performance Measures are the backbone of meaningful progress.
They reveal whether anything is actually improving.
Without Performance Measures, you have the illusion of progress, not progress itself.
🚀 Take the Next Step
If you found this helpful, consider joining an upcoming PuMP Performance Measure Workshop to learn the full method for designing meaningful, evidence-based measures of progress and success.
Brook Rolter helps clients integrate strategy, organizational performance, and execution to improve mission results and build lasting capabilities. He has worked internationally in both public and private sectors and is Stacey Barr's licensed US Partner for PuMP.
The post first appeared on RolterAssociates.com
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