“I am a dreamer. I am, indeed, a practical dreamer. My dreams are not airy nothings. I want to convert my dreams into realities, as far as possible.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi
In the last article, we discussed that outcomes are the change you want to become. In some ways they are like dreams. They can be nice to think about and can provide inspiration. But, they become most powerful when they are realized.
With outcomes, it is also important to define what it will look like when I get there, and I refer to them as outcome indicators. Every year we plant a garden at my home. This year my youngest daughter was very excited about planting carrots. Now, when you look at a carrot seed, it does not look like a carrot. But, in faith we know it has all the potential inside of it to become that carrot. So, we plant it. But, how do we know if the transformation to a carrot is happening? We look for indicators. My daughter was so excited when she saw the green leafy tops of the carrots sprouting out of the ground. We knew the change was happening.
Outcome indicators act in the same way. They are our measurements of growth towards the change. A popular form of measurement is by numbers, which can work. For example, you may have an outcome of generosity, and you decide that an indicator would be that your percentage of giving to charities would increase. We like numbers because they are concrete. However, they can lead us astray if they are not measuring the true change in our outcome.
For example, Ed has an outcome of being a strengths based leader. He then says that an indicator would be reading 5 books on his strengths this year. However, does this really indicate that he is leading out of his strengths more? This indicates he has learned more about his strengths and could be an action step, but this is not an indicator of him actually leading in his strengths.
You need to ask yourself, “How will I know the change is happening?”
Maybe for Ed to be a strengths based leader, an indicator would be the impact on his staff. Such as, his staff is now performing activities that are in his area of his weakness. This is an indicator you can see that points to this change. Another indicator could be a change within Ed. When he was not leading by his strengths, he felt stressed all the time. So, maybe an important indicator would be an increase in him feeling peace. Maybe he keeps a journal where he can note how much peace versus stress he felt each day. Or, maybe he surveys his staff and family about what change they see in his demeanor.
Outcome indicators do not have to be complex, but they do need to measure the real change. Be creative. Also, as the year progresses, reflect on the change you are looking for. Maybe new indicators emerge that you did not even realize before.