Have You Ever Seen a KPI Improve Performance?

4 August 2026

 

I haven't. Not once.

 

But that doesn't mean KPIs aren't important.

It simply means we've been expecting them to do something they were never designed to do.

A speedometer tells you how fast you're travelling. It doesn't make you slow down.

A thermometer tells you the temperature. It doesn't warm the room.

In exactly the same way, a KPI tells us what has happened. It doesn't make anything happen.

Yet listen to the language we use in organisations.

"Our KPIs drive performance."

Do they?

Or do they just tell us whether planned compliance has been achieved?

You see, there's a world of difference between an indicator and an intervention.

An indicator tells us what is.

An intervention changes what will be.

A KPI is an indicator. Nothing more. Nothing less.

It can tell us whether sales have increased.

It can tell us whether customer complaints have fallen.

It can tell us whether production targets have been met.

But it never increased sales.

It never reduced customer complaints.

It never improved production.

What it did do, was measure the result.

So maybe we've been looking for performance in the wrong place, and maybe a KPI was never really designed to improve performance.

If that’s the case, its greatest value then lies in revealing what needs to change.

And that's a very different conversation.

 

If you would like to talk to me, please call me on +27 82 465 5481 or email me on mark@meritbusiness.com

 

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