Why is Everyone so Afraid of Results?

fear of results

There’s no purpose to this work other than to achieve results. So why are we afraid of them? Ask a service provider about intended or expected results and chances are they’ll start talking sideways about how difficult and complex it is to define success and/or impact in a measurable way.

Yes, tracking results is difficult. Yes, generating results is complex. Yes, there are many factors that can get in the way of success. I say so what. If you’re doing  service work and you’re not willing to track results (or at least try), then you ought to be off somewhere else, doing something else.

If you’re working on a project to support young people in getting college degrees, you should be able to state, at any given moment, exactly how many young people you’ve helped to get into college – over the past week, month, quarter, and year. You should be able to state how many are still in college, how many have dropped out, and what those who did are doing right now. That’s a result-based approach.

If you run a jobs program, how many people have you helped to get jobs? If you run an early education program, how many children are reading on level by third grade? If you run a drug abuse prevention/intervention program, how many people have you helped to rehabilitate? If you’re a basketball coach, is your team scoring more points than the other? If you don’t know, then you can’t possibly know whether your program is working.

There’s no downside to developing a results statement that’s responsive to the organization’s mission and activities. The worst that can happen if you miss your mark is that you learn things about your process that will allow you to make course corrections and generate better results in the future.

So pick a number and then go after it. Monitor it closely, every day if you have to. Post the number on the wall and update it daily, weekly, monthly. Get your team to buy into the idea that the number matters more than anything else.  Because it does. Convince them that the number is the main reason why they do the work.  Because it is. If they disagree, then they should be off somewhere else, doing something else.

Click here to learn more about Results-Based Accountability.  Or visit the websites of the Staten Island Foundation to download a useful tip sheet on writing powerful results statements.

 

 

 

AUTHOR

Coach Dave

All stories by: Coach Dave

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