Why So Many Metrics Miss the Mark

Ever sat through a weekly update meeting wondering, “What does this number actually mean?” I’ve seen it too often: thousands of metrics tracked across a company, yet no clear understanding of what success looks like.

At a major aerospace and defense manufacturer, we discovered over 9,000 different metrics tracked by 5,000 employees. The result? Six full-time staff just building PowerPoints—half of which never got shown because meeting time was spent explaining what each chart meant.

That’s not performance clarity. That’s noise.

From Chaos to Clarity: Define the Right KPIs

The solution starts with alignment. Every department, every team, should be working toward shared business goals. That means clearly defining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and separating them from metrics.

Here’s how we structure it:

• Safety
• Quality
• Delivery
• Cost
• People

This is the SQDCP framework, and each area gets one KPI.

If your team supports internal or external clients, define how. For example: Are you delivering what they need on time? How often? That’s a KPI. Everything else—the reasons you don’t deliver on time—those are your metrics.

KPIs vs. Metrics: Know the Difference

A KPI tells you what winning looks like.

A metric explains why you’re not winning.

Use Pareto analysis to find your top 3–5 reasons for missing your KPI. That’s where your team should focus improvement efforts. As we discussed in Blog 1: Operational Whack-a-Mole, this helps you avoid emotional firefighting and keeps attention on the strategic few.

The Value of Internal Customer Thinking

Even internally, you should think of your colleagues as customers.

Let’s say your team provides data reports to another department. You agree: reports will be delivered within 48 hours of request. That becomes your on-time delivery KPI.

Track it. Measure it. Improve it.

Now imagine that HR also reports to you. Their KPI? Time to fill open roles. Suddenly, different functions can be rolled up into one executive dashboard. You get real, comparable data across teams.

Prioritization Through Standardization

When every team uses the same framework—SQDCP and the KPI/metric split—you gain:

• Comparable performance across departments
• Shared logic for resource allocation
• Clear line of sight from daily tasks to company goals

This also removes a lot of politics. If your team isn’t getting budget for their project, but another team is, you’ll understand why.

It’s not about who sells the best story. It’s about impact.

KPIs Keep You Honest

One of the reasons I push this structure is because it exposes the difference between action and impact. Plenty of teams work hard. But are they working on the right things?

Let KPIs tell that story.

Let metrics explain what’s getting in the way.

Then prioritize your efforts based on what drives the biggest shift in performance.

Final Thought

Performance without clarity is just motion. If you want to build a high-functioning team, start by defining KPIs that everyone understands, and use your metrics as the diagnostic engine.

Once you align around the right goals, everything else starts to click.