Re: Ideas about service value

[Bob Adsett <bob.adsett@lineone.net>]

June

Just because it may be difficult or impossible to measure something does not
mean it does not matter, or that it does not exist. How do we measure love?
Even the hardest hearted individual would probably concede that love exists,
but how do we measure it - clearly not with a 'Loveometer' :0)
Could we devise a way of measuring love, well, that is a bit more difficult,
we can measure the manifestations of love. And I am sure we can identify
when love is present and when it is absent.

In the UK we are trying to move away from target measurement of service
delivery  (the problems with targets has been well aired on the DEN and in
the works of Joiner, Scholtes et al) and are seeking to measure 'outcomes' -
those changes that can be attributable to the actions in terms of results
and impacts. This is new territory for many people and we are struggling
with it. 

But one of the ways that I favour is creating new approaches to measurement
and evaluation and to see our actions in terms of systems that incorporate a
series of processes. It is more valuable to evaluate the effectiveness of
what we do in terms of the processes,  that are in turn responsible for the
delivery of outputs (outcomes). In other words concentrate on the means and
method and not the ends.
It is only through this perspective that we can deliver continuous
improvement driven by customer feedback through the design and redesign of
our processes. 

So what could (or should) we be measuring?  How well the processes operate,
customers perspective of the service they receive - what are they getting
they don't need (which we could view as waste), and what are they not
getting that they require, what are the important factors in our service
that the customer values.
It is not that these factors are unknowable, they are just unknown until we
formulate the questions to get to the information we need. As a certain W.E.
Deming said, we need to be mindful that "If you do not know how to ask the
right question, you discover nothing".
And to this end it is more important to be able to formulate better
questions than it can ever be to provide solutions, as every circumstance is
different there can never be only one 'right' answer.


Bob

-- 
Bob Adsett
11 Fernbank Drive
Bingley, Yorkshire
UK BD16 4HB

Tel. +44 (0) 1274 779 502          Mobile +44 (0) 7980 85 22 34