Outcome Targets
Outcome Targets
High performing services have discovered that nothing helps to increase performance more than outcome targets set for activities.
Experience is clear: people and groups with outcome targets out-perform those who pledge best efforts to do well. One reason why outcome targets help is that they literally provide the aiming point. Without an outcome target, most of us keep to the process and let the results vary.
Good outcome targets...
Move beyond process objectives like "numbers entering treatment" and "completions" to look at gains that come from the process and outputs. The best targets are straight forward-more jobs, stopping/reducing drug use, reduced truancy, lower crime, and fewer teenage pregnancies.
Are verifiable. They represent a change in behaviour or condition that can be objectively confirmed.
Stay under the control of the provider. Targets are set to be achievable even if things in the environment go astray. Without this rigour, it is too easy to blame external forces for shortfalls in performance.
Get set relative to a baseline. A target of getting 40 people a job is not meaningful until we know how many of these people would have secured employment in any event!
Represent clear commitments by a given time, not just statements of aspiration or hope.
Outcome targets shift the focus from work plan (what we do) to milestones (what our clients do and achieve). If the target for a provider is that 15 people will stop their drug use and reduce crime, the question is not how many sessions are delivered or how dutifully he or she follows the protocols. The question is does the client learn, change and get better, and remain drug and crime free for sometime to come.
Another value of outcome targets lies in asking clients who enter a service to own them. In the above example, the provider is well served by sharing the target with the client, first gaining agreement that it is reasonable, then using a follow-up process to see how many are reaching the target zone as the treatment sessions progress.
Finally, targets streamline follow up and evaluation. A person can call up client's who have completed treatment and ask if they can describe something specific they are still doing and the results. A clear target enables the process of verification - did it happen ‘yes' or ‘no'.
