15 steps to a KPI project in a government and non profit agencies

By David Parmenter

During workshops which I deliver I have been asked by attendees from government and non profit agencies (GANPA) “Will winning KPIs work for us?” they ask. The answer is a profound “yes” to all organisations who are:

  1. Government agencies
  2. Local municipality
  3. Police or Armed forces
  4. NGOs
  5. Health services
  6. Educational institutions
  7. Charities
  8. Professional bodies
  9. Other not for profits

Finding your winning KPIs will create much benefit

By embedding ‘winning KPIs’ Government and Non Profit Agencies would benefit from:

  • knowing their critical success factors (CSFs) and conveying them to all staff
  • more widespread empowerment and more clarity on what should be recorded and reported
  • CEOs, both current and future, connected to staff who are working in the CSFs e.g., there will be daily follow-up calls on the KPIs; and
  • Staff’s daily activities linked to the strategic direction of the organization.
Even though an organization has a strategy, teams are often working in directions very different to the intended course as shown in Exhibit 1. If the CSFs of the organization are clarified and communicated, staff will now be able to align their daily activities closer to the strategic direction of the organization as shown in Exhibit 2.

Exhibit 1:The impact of winning KPIs to the daily routine and tasks performed by staff

Exhibit 1: Before winning KPIs Exhibit 2: After implementation of winning KPIs
csf-exh1-1 csf-exh1-2

The process is relatively simple and will take between 6 to 16 weeks of elapsed time depending on the size of the organization. The process I recommend requires an understanding of four types of performance

measure, namely:

  • key results indicators (KRIs) – six to 10 financial and nonfinancial monthly or quarterly measures giving an overview of past performance;
  • performance indicators (PI) – 30-50 non-financial daily, weekly or monthly measures telling staff and management what to do;
  • results indicators (RIs) – 30-50 financial and non-financial daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly summary indicators telling staff what they have done; and
  • KPIs – six to 10 non-financial measures telling staff and management what to do to increase performance dramatically, measured 24/7, daily or weekly.

There are 15 steps to take

  1. Selling the KPI project to the C-Suite and the organization’s oracles. (See Chapter 4 and 5). Read David’s chapter on Leading and Selling Change. Use the presentation deck available in the KPI toolkit.  Access the sample here.
  2. Locate an external facilitator to help prepare the KPI team. (See Chapter 5)
  3. Train a small KPI team. (See Chapter 6)
  4. Locate the success factors and desired external outcomes. (See Chapter 7)
  5. Ascertain the critical success factors and present them to the staff. (See Chapter 7)
  6. Selling the KPI project to all employees to encourage their participation. (See Chapter 4)
  7. Run the two-day performance measures workshops to train staff to develop meaningful measures. (See Chapter 8 & 9)
  8. Refining the measures after the performance measures workshops. (See Chapter  9)
  9. Hold a performance measures gallery to wean out dysfunctional and poor measures. (See Chapter 9)
  10. Ask all teams to select their team performance measures from the finalized database of measures (See Chapter 9)
  11. Find the key result indicators (KRIs). (See Chapter 9)
  12. Find the key performance indicators (KPIs). (See Chapter 9)
  13. Design the reporting framework. (See Chapter 10)
  14. Facilitate the use of performance measures. (See Chapter 11)
  15. Refine CSFs and measures after one year of operating with the CSFs and KPIs. (See Chapter 11)

(Chapter numbers refer to the KPI book 4th edition)

As a starting point, complete my checklist “Are you ready for a KPI project”.  Read my chapters on The Great Misunderstanding with regards to KPIs and the myths of performance measurement.

Purchase my latest toolkits which are currently on sale:

How to implement winning KPIs (180 page Whitepaper + electronic templates)

Finding your Organization’s Critical Success Factors – Toolkit (Whitepaper 115 pages+ electronic templates)

 and buy the Newly Updated: Database of Measures and Associated Success Factors 4th Edition (Updated August 2019)