We Need New Metrics

“What gets measured gets done.”

But what if the things that matter most in high performing teams — trust, psychological safety, sense of purpose — are the very things we’re not measuring very well…or at all?

Military and private sector are exploring new ways to measure those harder-to-measure elements. The profession of policing needs to do the same. Our performance and our ability to recruit and retain the best talent requires it.

The reason our metrics focus on arrests, citations, response times and clearance rates is not because they are the most important or best indicators of a successful culture, but because they are the easiest things to measure. And many of those metrics are tied to an officer’s promotability or to grants. But the truth is, the “top performers” aren’t always the best cops or leaders and there is often little proof that those same metrics are achieving the results the public or politicians are hoping for. But, hey, any metric is better than none.

Some of the most forward thinking organizations in the country are starting to use weighted scorecards as a new way to measure performance. The traditional metrics are still on the scorecard, but they may only be weighted to 10% of the total performance metric. Metrics like if someone leads from in front or how team oriented they are or if they are community obsessed, can all direct the behavior that make any policing organization better and stronger.

And perhaps the best new metric that needs to show up on those scorecards – is your agency an amazing place to work (as evaluated by the individual being graded)? That simple metric tells leadership if they are doing the hard work to create a culture in which people feel psychologically safe, trusted and trusting and have a sense of purpose at work.

If you don’t go to the doctor because you’re afraid of what they may say, that doesn’t mean you’re not sick. If we are really honest with ourselves, too many leaders in policing don’t want to ask some of these questions because they are afraid of the answers they may get.

We have to embrace the accountability we have as leaders. If our metrics are lower than we want, then that’s an amazing opportunity to leave a mark on our agencies, to build a legacy, and make meaningful change. And best of all, it’s an opportunity to create a place that the best people want to work at. If what gets measured gets done, lets do the things that really matter.