Measurement, performance management and people's lives

Modern performance management in mental health and social care is derived from practices used in the for profit sector.

Outside this domain performance management really works to deliver real improvement. By real I mean what the measures measure. In the for profit sector the system works well because the measures are often well established and qwuantify simple things.

Averages based measures are the core of this system in performance management, as they are in other fields, is the de facto standard of the application of the philosophy of science. Basically it is evidenced based hypothesis testing which brings empirical stuff to the performance of an organisation.

Science has empowered so much progress through this system which is why the techniques were then applied to the business world.

Progress meant the Third sector had to be truly accoubtable and measured too but in this area the techniques of science hit major obstacles.

Perhaps the least observed but thereby most important advancements when performance management is applied to soft things like people is the performance indicator which communicates the outcomes of those worst off.

This must be communicated though. It doesn't matter to for-profits. It matters to those organisations that really measure important things.

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