Lesson 6

Table of Contents

1. How to Use Measurement for Meaningful Change
2. What to Measure
3. What Happens if it Isn’t Working?
4. Assignment 6: Set Up a Regular Check-In

If you can remember all the way back to lesson three—almost half this course ago—you’ll recall we set up some initial tracking metrics. We like to do this before you start changing things for two reasons: firstly, because it’s useful to think through your goals with the end in mind, and secondly, because it allows us to capture a baseline of your performance before you try anything new. 

But tracking metrics is one of those sticky subjects we think is worth spending more time on. When done well, it can provide feedback on your progress and motivate you to keep going. 

However, the metrics you choose to track matter. Poorly chosen targets can lead to misaligned incentives and ultimately disastrous results. Like one UK scandal where doctors were so focused on improving wait times in the emergency room that they overlooked seriously ill patients to treat ones with minor complaints. Or another, where parking enforcement officers were caught issuing fraudulent tickets in order to meet quotas. These are just a few of many examples of organizations setting targets that backfire. 

If you focus on improving one specific measure—and tie that number to performance and compensation—you can’t be surprised if people start to optimize for that number above all else. That’s the premise behind Goodhart’s law: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”

This is where the art of persuasion comes in—that thing that’s so critical to change management, but can feel so intimidating for RFP people. Because talking about process is one thing, but going around and telling people that they need to do their jobs differently…well, that’s another thing entirely. 

In this lesson, we’ll show you how to avoid becoming a victim of Goodhart’s law. We’ll take the opportunity to check in on your progress, tweak your measurements to track your work holistically, and troubleshoot any issues you might be having.

How to Use Measurement for Meaningful Change

To avoid optimizing for one thing at the expense of another equal or even more important one—like in the emergency room example above—we recommend not singling out one metric to track in a vacuum. Sure, you might want to improve the speed of your RFP process, but if you focus on enhancing the speed of submission above other important data points like your advancement and win rates, you might risk putting out a lot of RFPs in a short period of time that don’t win you deals. In the end, like the doctors who put their patient care on the line to improve their speed, you sacrifice your end goal (winning more RFPs) in favor of improving a less relevant metric. 

This all might sound obvious, but it happens more than you think—as evidenced by the huge list of examples linked above—because organizations don’t always think through the ways their measurement systems might incentivize the wrong kinds of behavior. 

Plus, achieving big, topline goals is very rarely the result of changing just one factor. Say you want to increase the amount of revenue you generate from RFPs. You can’t just decide to apply to 50 more RFPs this year and assume that will take care of it—you still have to ensure the quality of those proposals, which is in turn influenced by your content, collaboration processes, and tools. 

That’s why we think it’s most helpful to treat your metrics like a constellation of data points that serve different purposes. Looking at your metrics holistically gives you a much better view of your overall performance, without over-focusing on one thing.

What to Measure

To track your goals effectively, we recommend using a mix of leading and lagging indicators. Leading indicators will give you early feedback on how well something is working, whereas lagging indicators will show you how well past changes have impacted overall performance. 

Based on the metrics we discussed in Lesson 3, here’s how we would categorize them into leading and lagging indicators:

Depending on your specific goals, you might want to round out your metrics with even more data points that relate to the changes you want to make. For instance: 

Content Management

• % of content being used
• Amount of content above 50% “freshness” score (TBD by you)
• % of content being updated periodically
• Library growth over time (monthly or quarterly)
  • Record what you add (new content, updates)
  • Record what you delete (duplicates, redundant material)

Writing Process

• % of a typical RFP you can fill in before engaging SMEs
• % automation rate for a first pass (if using RFP software)
• % generated with AI for a first pass (if using generative AI)

Collaboration

• % of contributors participating in the recognized response process
• % of contributors participating outside the recognized response process (messaging, emailing, etc.)
• % of contributors not contributing without active chasing

Effort & Results

• How much time does a “typical” response take for the core response team? For anyone who contributes outside the core response time? 
• What’s the usual time frame for a response (# of days or weeks)?
• How many responses require extraordinary effort that takes evening or weekend time away from your core response team? 
• On a scale of 0-10, how would you describe the stress level of the core response team?
• In the last six months, how many responses did not get submitted on time? 
• In the last six months, how many responses were abandoned midway? 

If you haven’t already, take the opportunity now to take a baseline measurement of your key metrics so you have that as a benchmark.

What Happens if it Isn’t Working?

So you take your baseline, launch your change initiative, and…nothing. It’s been a few weeks or even months and you haven’t been able to track any meaningful change. What do you do? 

First off, don’t panic! It may take time for your team to adapt to a new process. People tend to underestimate how long it will take to enact a change, so it’s worth being patient. Remember, this is all brand-new to your team. 

“Successful change management engages people from their perspective: understanding what it means to them, what it’s going to feel like, and how it’s going to be different.”

Lisa Longley

Vice President

Weber Associates

If you find folks are consistently hitting the same kinds of snags, it might be worth spending more time on education. “The post-change education process has been really important,” says Natalie Giles-Grant, Head of Bid Management at OneAdvanced. “I’m still going through that education process now. It’s spending time with the direct sales teams on a one-to-one basis, showing them the new changes, educating them on why we’re making the changes, and allowing them the time to ask questions. It makes them more engaged with us, and more likely to do what we need everybody to be doing to get the best output for our customers.”

And while the new process might seem obvious to you, it’s not necessarily going to be as clear to everyone you’re asking to enact it. “If you push for a change but don’t show people how it integrates into their day-to-day activities, they’re going to revert back to the behaviors that they’re comfortable with—because not only are you asking them to change, you’re making them figure it out themselves,” says Lisa Longley, Vice President at Weber Associates. You may need to provide a lot more step-by-step guidance than you think. Don’t leave your team on their own to figure it out. 

Finally, it’s important that you’ve built your case for change in terms of what each team cares about, which means revisiting your “what’s in it for me?” (WIIFM).  

“Successful change management engages people from their perspective: understanding what it means to them, what it’s going to feel like, and how it’s going to be different,” says Lisa Longley, Vice President at Weber Associates. “You have to understand where they’re coming from to equip them to go through the change process.” 

One of the most motivating things you can do for your team is to share regular progress updates. People like seeing how far they’ve come. They want to know their efforts matter, that their work is seen and appreciated, and that the steps they’re taking are having the desired impact. 

That means figuring out when and how you’ll share these updates with your team. We recommend setting up a recurring meeting on a monthly or quarterly basis. In today’s assignment, we’ll do just that.