Ever come through a workplace crisis and feel worried something is still wrong? Worse still, ever come out of a crisis and go straight into another? All this is really draining and not good for either your organization, or personal reputation. As we’ll see, the following (self-development) principals apply equally to your private life.

So how do you get into these situations and how do you prevent them from reoccurring? Some situations just come in from outside our sphere of influence and not all of these can be readily avoided; some maybe, all, perhaps not. However, all that really is controlled within our organization can normally be monitored, so then managed, and as a result, kept from crisis.

Most organizations process or build things. So, we are naturally concerned about:

• Numbers processed
• Quality level
• Throughput of processing

Generally, if you’re processing orders, building widgets, designing products, getting sales orders, developing datasheets, servicing customer complaints, etc. these measures apply. And, if we’re performing work that falls in these above categories, we care that it’s done well. In addition, we want the vast majority of all our work to be routine processing, without crises!

There are two ways you can measure how you (or, your group) are doing:

• Proactively
• Reactively

A proactive measure is to help you head off or warn of pending problems. Better to take action to avoid a disaster than deal with it when it’s got a full head of steam. Example: if orders stop coming in for product you might want to discuss this with the sales/promotion team as soon as you see the drop off, perhaps you even need to begin managing for a major downturn in your operation?

On the reactive front you may (say) measure the change in some manufacturing spec, over time. This would prove useful if product failures start occurring that track this parameter. Note: in some cases a proactive measure in one situation is a reactive measure for another.

Most managers should be familiar with the principal of Measurement Systems. There are many types of measures; they apply equally to the manufacturing floor, design area, general office and indeed all areas of any business. The issue is that all businesses should monitor and measure key areas of execution in each group so they can:

• Head off problems, proactively
• Quickly find root causes of problem(s)
• Secure effective interfaces between groups
• Improve: Numbers, Quality and Throughput
• Validate current status
• Confirm future outlook

Occasionally, people get hung up with metrics. ”You can’t measure that,” is a common reflection. Actually, you can measure anything. The simple trick is to recognize there are really two types of measurements:

• Direct
• Indirect

Direct metrics speak for themselves. Example: you want to know how many widgets you build, just count them. Indirect is just that. Example: you want to know if people “enjoy” using your product, then (say) survey them regularly and offer a scoring scale on which they rate their “enjoyment.” This simple principle can invariably be applied in one form or another.

The bottom line is this; if you care about something, you should measure it.

When you move into a new role it will be necessary to review existing measurements, or perhaps even create an entire new set up. The same is true if your group expands into new responsibilities.

Measurement systems and metrics are living things. As the organization evolves, so should they. When measurements have little value, they can be discarded; just check very thoroughly for associated risks with their omission, first! Similarly, new metrics should be brought on to capture new variations in activity or better probe for insightful details that have real value. Just don’t invest more in managing the metric than it’s practically worth to the organization!

These same philosophies apply across our lives. Things we care about outside of the workplace can be measured, too. If you have personal goals, then why not have a few personalized metrics that check progress towards these ends? These metrics could be something to look at daily, monthly, quarterly, annually or even every five years or so.

Personal metrics are in everyone’s life, anyway. Examples might be you tracking a bank balance monthly and quarterly, or reviewing and rebalancing that 401(k) quarterly and annually. Checking your salary each year and your total savings EOY are all measures, just as is monitoring your monthly expenses. Perhaps you’d be better expanding these measures to even more useful metrics, directly tied to your goals? Again, if you care about something you should measure it, right?

I’ve always found that people, who focus on goals, build themselves rich and complete images of their future and consequently more commonly tend to evolve into that vision. Having goals is part of personal development and career progress. Measuring actual progress just helps keep you on track.

So, do you effectively monitor and measure your group and workplace performance? Need to review and upgrade what’s being done? Be sure to take action both at work with your own career and at home with your lifestyle aspirations. At the very least, you should just head off a few crises!

Ian R. Mackintosh is the author of Empower Your Inner Manager Twitter @ianrmackintosh