[philipodonnell]

I used to do this kind of work, not with McKinsey. When you do it a lot you realize how hard it is and why. Everything you want to measure, someone will claim it doesn't capture this and that, or will definitely be gamed and destroy the company. A lot like this article and discussion really. Many times picking metrics are the easiest part compared to getting the data, calculating the time series, setting targets, managing under/out performance. It's all kinda inevitable... so my advice is always to not focus too much on the metrics and focus on managing instead.

- Measure everything you your systems allow you to, maybe tweak some workflows, but don't add complexity or cost just for metrics.

- Separate metrics into stuff that needs to stay the same (mostly operational efficiency metrics) and stuff that needs to change (strategic metrics) and spend more time on the latter.

- Don't compensate or reward people based on them, just look at them a lot and if you see something that looks weird then talk to your managers about why, and if they can't answer or won't take action then that's all you need to know to reward them.

- If you want to use metrics to create competition just publish a leaderboard and let peer pressure do the rest. People will work hard to be at the top of a public list even if there is no explicit reward for it.

Just be a manager, manage the people, and use metrics that help you manage the people. You won't sell many consulting engagements that way tho.