Fix the Symptom and You Will Find the Problem

The couple came to me for counselling. He had the “I don’t really want to be here but I think I’m supposed to want to” look.  For the second time in three years he had forgotten their anniversary along with some other significant dates. He wanted to assure his wife that the forgotten occasions were in no way a reflection of the value he placed on her, the marriage or the children. His unsuccessful attempts to convince his wife that it was just an oversight due to pressures at work had only served to fuel their trip to my office.

I had the answer. It was during the days of the Palm Pilot, and having one I proudly showed him the alarm feature. All he had to do was enter the must-not-forget dates and on the appointed date an alarm would go off to remind him. My advice was an instant hit with him and he was ready to run out and purchase one. (I internally guessed that the cost and hassle of counselling was huge motivating factor). 

By this time we were less than half way through the allotted time for the session. Having come up with the answer so quickly, there was no need to waste any more time and so I asked him if the counselling fee had been well worth the investment, which he assured me it had.

I turned to his wife who had said very little after earlier venting her frustration with his forgetfulness and posed the same question. “I can’t think of a bigger waste of money than coming here” she exploded.

The couple had at least one problem which I helped them to discover in the remaining time together. What he wanted to dismiss as a small problem to be handled, for her was a symptom of a much bigger problem. She had been unsuccessful to that point in dealing with the problem because she argued with him about the symptom . With that issue in front of us, I had to gingerly put the session (and what little credibility I had left) back on track. 

The bad news is that when a long standing problem looks like it has a simple solution, it is usually because we are dealing with the symptom. The good news is that dealing with the symptom will often float the real problem to the surface.

Before the couple left they both had a better sense that one of the problems in their marriage was his attempt to dismiss her concerns by dealing with the symptom of forgetfulness when the real problem lay in the fact that his marriage and his family had slipped well down the list of personal priorities. 

Organizations can experience a negative situation which is often the symptom of a problem.  At Ted Hull Consulting we help boards look at the symptom and then articulate the problem underneath the symptom and provide direction so they can get from where they are to where they want to be.

Reducing Uncertainty

"They have no idea” was the expression that caught my attention. The conversation had gone something like this:

"Our son and daughter-in-law are expecting".

“Congratulations, when she due"?

 "She has three months to go".

“Do they know what they're having"?

It was the response to that question which intrigued me.

“No, they have no idea”.

Being the self-effacing person that I am, I didn't offer my perspective. However I had an idea. I was confident the expecting family wouldn’t have a kitten or a turnip; it would likely be a girl or a boy.

Douglas Hubbard in his book How to Measure Anything has defined measurement as the reduction of uncertainty. In many cases the measurement of something does not need to be accurate, it simply needs to reduce uncertainty. For example suppose you are the board chair of the church and you are wondering what the donation income will be by the end of the year. Given the information which you should already have, you will know by the end of March what your donation income will be at the end of December. Find out what the average percentage of all donations received during the past three years was received by the end of March. It is unlikely that being 25% through the year, the church will have received 25% of its donations. Typically the highest giving is in November and December. So if over the past three years the church has received on average 19.4% of what it was going to receive by the end of the year, you have yourself a measurement. You can reduce uncertainty with relative confidence knowing that whatever the donation amount is by the end of March will be 19.4% of what you're going to receive by the end of the year.

This can apply to a weight loss target, retirement portfolio, camper registrations or store sales.

Let me encourage you to identify something today with which you have a significant degree of uncertainty and look at how you can reduce that level of uncertainty.

Measurements, Metrics and Rubrics - What's the Difference?

I was about twelve years old when I saved up money from my paper route to buy a speedometer for my bicycle. Unfortunately much of what I measured since then has been rather inconsequential. However some things are well worth measuring. In working with mission organizations and churches, I am constantly challenging them to measure what is being accomplished so they can know how to better invest their resources.

When referring to measuring things, there are two terms which are used interchangeably: measurements and metrics. A third term which is used less often but can be just as important is rubric. In the interests of full disclosure you need to know that I have never taken a stats course nor do I consider myself any kind of expert. So only read this if you fumble around with these terms in the same way I have.

Suppose your job performance was evaluated by your supervisor and you were given a 4. That would be a measurement. And while that measurement is very important, the number itself is virtually meaningless. First of all you don't know if you were being measured on a scale of 1 to 10 or 1 to 5. The scale is the metric. Stated differently, 60 kilometers per hour provides you with a measurement and a metric. Knowing that you are “doing 60”, can be a real problem if you don't know what the metric is. Driving 60 miles per hour in a 60 kilometer per hour zone may result in a speeding ticket. Conversely knowing that the speed limit is in kilometers per hour (a metric) is not helpful if you don't know how fast (a measurement) you are going. As such, both a measurement and a metric are vital.

Now let's go back to that job performance where you received a 4 out of 5. What we still don’t know is specifically what was being evaluated. For the sake of illustration let's look at the evaluation being based on your punctuality. Your supervisor has given you a 4 out of 5 without clearly defining why she has landed on that particular number. So what you need is a rubric; a chart that spells out what qualifies you for a 5 or a 4 etc. You would receive a 5 out of 5 if you had never been late within the evaluation period. If you were late once by five minutes, you could not receive a 5. A 4 out of 5 might mean that you were late only one time and the one time you were late was not by more than fifteen minutes.

In summary you know what was measured, the standard of measurement (the metric) and how the measurement was arrived at (the rubric).

So what does this have to do with anything?

Any ministry needs to effectively evaluate the accomplishment of Ends. It wants to be able to describe what an effective ministry would look like. In Policy Governance vernacular it does that by describing it Ends (what is the benefit, who are the beneficiaries and what would be an acceptable cost). Then it needs to measure the effective accomplishment of its Ends by developing metrics and in some cases a rubric.

If your ministry is worth doing, the results are worth being measured.

A Policy Governance® Fable

Once upon a time, long long ago a boy named Ted Hull created a recipe for Ted’s Temptingly Tantalizing Tomato Turnover.  So delighted was he by what he had made that he decided to register the name and trademark his recipe. This way no one could modify his delightful dessert and still call it Ted’s Temptingly Tantalizing Tomato Turnover, while still having the recipe available to the general public. The ingredients and directions were posted on walls throughout the village, shared by friends until it eventually became famous around the world.

By and by, some who fancied themselves as chefs sought to improve upon the recipe. This was done by leaving some ingredients out and using less of others. Some people actually went so far as to replace the tomatoes with blueberries.  Sadly some of those same chefs, even those who replaced the tomatoes with blueberries, continued to call the boy’s legally registered recipe “Ted’s Tempting Tantalizing Tomato Turnover”. 

Once upon a time long ago - like over thirty years ago - a man named John Carver created a governance model and called it Policy Governance^®.  He put together the ingredients and the instructions for how the ingredients needed to be mixed. The ingredients and directions were posted on pages of the internet and it became famous around the world.

By and by, some who fancied themselves as governance experts sought to improve upon the model. This was done primarily by leaving out some ingredients and using less of others. While this is the prerogative of the self-proclaimed experts, sadly they continued to call what they concocted Policy Governance^®.

Ted’s Temptingly Tantalizing Tomato Turnover and Policy Governance^® have at least one thing (and arguably only one thing) in common: they are both owned by someone. While there are people who believe the product can be improved upon, they have no right to make those improvements and call it by the same name.

In the interests of full disclosure let me tell you that Ted Hull is as familiar with a kitchen as a seven year old is with the cockpit of a Boeing 777. So please do not send for the recipe. It is so secret that even he doesn’t know what’s in it.

However Ted is familiar with organizations that are using Policy Governance^® but leave out some of the ingredients. He talked to a pastor recently who said that his church had introduced Policy Governance^®. When he asked the pastor if the board was monitoring compliance to the policies, the pastor told Ted that he was “self-monitoring”.  Ted doesn’t know what other ingredients were substituted or left out, but in our allegory the pastor essentially replaced the tomatoes with blueberries and continued to call it Ted’s Temptingly Tantalizing Tomato Turnover.

This is not a lesson in telling you how to bake or how to govern an organization. It is a reminder that when you change the ingredients and alter the directions of Policy Governance^® it isn’t Policy Governance^® anymore.

The Difference between Governance and Guardianship

When I first meet with the board of a church, I often start off by saying that I am going to talk about what I am not going to talk about. While governance is my area of experience and perceived expertise, I appreciate the importance of ensuring that the distinctives of a church are protected. The term I use for this aspect of church leadership is guardianship. 

Churches have some differences from other charities as I describe in A Guide to Governing Charities. While it is similar to a typical registered charity with an AGM and members voting on various motions etc., there are some basic theological and doctrinal beliefs that are woven into the fabric of that church. The guardians, gatekeepers or elders (using the biblical term) serve to watch out for those values that are not always focused on by the membership. This group of individuals who are not necessarily part of the governing board, guard the tenets of the faith. The church body will have previously decided to embrace these values which in turn should be formally accepted by each new member when they sign a statement of faith and are accepted into membership.

Are these elders who serve as guardians of the faith above the governing board of the church or the members of the church? Certainly not in a governing sense. The ultimate governing body of a registered charity is the board and that right to govern is granted by the membership. However in another sense, the elders, having been acknowledged and affirmed by the church, need to have the wisdom and courage to stand for the truths previously agreed upon by the church and stand against those who would seek to undermine those truths.

A church as a registered charity needs to balance the democratic right of members to identify the governing board while honouring the autocratic responsibility of elders to guard the values held by those same members.