Outputs vs. Outcomes
It's time to stop chasing activities and focus on what really matters
‘Tis the season for turkey, presents, and … documenting your achievements for the year?
For many of us, the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s are a time for office holiday parties, wrapping up year-end deals or projects, and preparing for annual performance reviews.
Corporate workers everywhere will return to the office after the long holiday weekend tomorrow and begin combing through their emails, 1:1 meeting notes, MBRs and QBRs to compile a list of accomplishments that their managers can use to determine their performance rating for the year.
(I realize that this timing may be different for my higher ed readers, but stick with me—I suspect the outcome is often the same.)
So. Many. Activities.
I’m often surprised by what I receive from my team in this process.
Some team members sell themselves short and send only one or two of their most significant accomplishments for the year.
Others focus on the wrong things—their list is long enough, but they highlight lesser achievements while missing the biggies.
And then there are the activity trackers. I had a team member once send me a six-page list of every single activity they completed that year, while simultaneously forgetting to include how they performed against their primary goal for the year. 🤦🏼♀️
Whether the list is short or long, what’s most surprising is that they almost always focus on activities—outputs, not outcomes.
They’re Not the Same
It’s understandable that our team members focus on activities. We all do.
As leaders, we talk about—and often measure—how many projects got completed, how many features got shipped, how many MQLs or SQLs got generated.
Activities, or outputs, are much easier to measure. To a large degree, they’re controllable. It’s clear when they’re complete. And it’s gratifying to complete them.
Outputs most certainly can lead to outcomes. But they are not the same.
When we focus on outputs, we get really good at doing things … but are they the right things? Not necessarily.
Outcomes Are Hard
It’s much harder to measure outcomes. Or even to decide what outcome you’re trying to drive.
When pushed to look at outcomes instead of outputs, we often gravitate toward some quantifiable measure or change as the objective—for example, increase revenue X% year-over-year or decrease response time by Y%.
It’s easy to believe these are the outcomes we’re looking for. Occasionally, they are.
More often than not, however, they’re simply more quantifiable outputs—still measures of what happened, not the deeper result you’re truly aiming for.
They might be an improvement over pure activity-based measures, but they can also lead to unintended consequences.
For example: As a CIO it’s not uncommon to hear about the responsiveness (or lack thereof) of the IT Help Desk, especially when you first join an institution. I certainly did.
When this happens, it can feel like “decrease response time” is the right outcome to move toward. But is it?
Focusing on response time can lead to gaming the system—answering or closing tickets quickly to meet the metric, even if the problem isn’t resolved. Technicians may only address “easy” tickets to inflate their numbers and leave difficult issues untouched.
And now you have Help Desk team members who’ve all listed outstanding response time metrics in their performance summaries, but your customers still aren’t happy.
Dig Deeper
So how do you know if something is an output or an outcome? Ask yourself: Can I meet this objective and still miss the mark in some way?
Your outcome is your North Star.
Do you want to position your company for scalable growth, or as the market leader in a specific segment? Revenue—the right type, or from the right customers—is a measure of this, not the outcome itself.
Or maybe you want to foster a customer-first culture. Response time may be one measure of this objective, but it’s definitely not all of it.
To get there, you have to go deeper.
Using the Five Whys can help you get to the root of what you’re trying to solve, not just a symptom of it.
Outputs Matter, Too
You can have amazing outputs and terrible outcomes. But you can’t have great outcomes without intentional focus.
With your outcome clearly defined, you’ll want to decide which activities are essential to achieving your goal. To do this:
Work backward. Identify what needs to be true for the outcome to happen.
Understand leading indicators. Identify the early signals that will show you’re on track.
Choose strategically. Identify specific outputs that will drive those indicators and build toward your ultimate outcome.
Outputs are key to achieving our goals, but not any old output will do.
As leaders, it’s time we stopped chasing activities and started helping our teams focus on work that truly matters.
So this year-end review season, try something different. When your team sends you their accomplishments, ask one follow-up question: ‘So what?’ Not to be dismissive—but to help them see the difference between busy and impactful.
Your team will stay busy either way. The only question is whether all that activity gets you any closer to the outcome you actually want.
Bonus reads: As we head into performance evaluation season, here are some tips for managing your lowest—and highest—performers.
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