What to Measure - Part 2

I want to follow up from the previous post by joining Covey’s’ lead measures’ in 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) to Moore’s ‘scattering matrix’ in Seize the Vuja De .  Let’s see how these concepts reflect each other in what we measure.

A goal in fund raising is the income.  So this is the lag measure: what you measure when you are done. It is also a gathering matrix because it is what you take in. But we said “A goal in fund raising is income”, not THE goal. In TG the goal is greater than the dollar amount; it is lives transformed through giving.  Hitting the dollar amount is a portion of the goal and the easiest to measure.  But in order to measure transformed lives we have to have lead measurements that help us see if we are scattering the message not just gathering the money. 

In the 4DX book one example is a lady who is a top seller in a shoe store.  The statement made about her is, “The manager knew what she did differently.  She would get lost in the customer’s world.”  This lady would notice what the customer was wearing, offer options to fit their style, ask what they did for a living, etc.  In other words it became about the customer’s need for shoes not the stores need to make sales.  Sound familiar. 

TG is based on the need of the champion not the need of the agency.  If this principle is key in the selling something as temporal as shoes, just think of the importance this principle can play in helping someone in their discipleship journey of giving.  TG happens when it is about the champion’s bottom line not ours.  The beauty is, God then adds fruit to the agency’s bottom line when the champion is transformed. 

So you have a budget to raise.  Your board or someone is monitoring the bottom line.  But what should you monitor.  In TG with a scattering matrix let me suggest a few items you and your leaders can be measuring:

-        Did my encounter with that champion leave them richer than they were before, i.e. Did it add value?

-        Did I give the champion what they need to get involved?

-        How many have I equip to tell others about the outreach?

-        How many of my champions testified that they shared the outreach with someone else?

-        Are people passing on what they learn?

-        How many champions are moving forward in their discipleship journey, i.e. How many are migrating from Participation to Engagement, Engagement to Owner?

Granted, this list is harder to measure than the bottom line.  But remember the bottom line is not just to get funded.  Part of the bottom line is to grow champions for the Cause. So we also need to keep in mind, how many we bring with us on the journey, not how many report back to about the journey.

I would love to discuss these measurements.  Drop a note if you have a comment or question.

What to Measure - Part 1

In Transformational Giving the question of what to measure always comes up.  One thing we know is we will always measure income in fund raising.  But since TG is about moving champions deeper in their journey and commitment to the cause, should measuring the journey be as important as measuring the income?  And if so how do you measure it?

There are two different resources I have come across that have helped me learn about measuring.  Each resource points to the need to measure BOTH.  Income measurements are important, but so are activity measurements

One teaching about measurement comes from Steve Moore in his book, Seize the Vuja De. Moore discusses a ‘gathering’ matrix as opposed to a ‘scattering’ matrix.  The gathering matrix is what we take in, i.e. gather.  It measures things such as: How many people attend church?  How much money did we collect?  How many souls were saved?  Etc.

 The scattering matrix is different.  It does not focus on what comes in but what goes out, i.e. what we scatter.  It may measure activities such as: How many people from our church shared their faith this month?  How did we invest our income to impact the Great Commission?  How many believers did we training in evangelism? So we shift our focus to what is coming in to what is going out.

The beauty is, if we are effective in scattering it impacts what we gather.  This may sound familiar since the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 9 that those who sow generously reap generously.

Another resource that mirrors Moore’s ‘scattering’ matrix comes from the 4 Disciplines of Execution.  The authors of this book mention lag measurements as opposed to lead measurements.  Lag measurement measures what has already happened. It is called lag because it is after the fact and can no longer be influenced. This is a similar concept to the ‘gathering’ way to measure.  Lead measurements are different.  They are fluid and can be influenced because they are measurements of activity during the process not the results at the end. 

An example from the book is airline safety records.   The lag measurement is 100% of the planes landed safely.  But how do you get these lag measure results.  Well you have a pre-flight check list that you can control.  This checklist is measured while it happens.  And when done properly it produces the desired result.  So the ‘scattering’ matrix you measure is not the number of planes landed safely, it is how many pilots are properly doing their preflight check list.

So for a church, ‘scattering’ measurements may look like this:  Not just how many pastoral visits the church staff made, but how many church members are being equipped for visitation and doing visitation. 

This entry is the ground work.  The next entry we will look at how all this can impact measurements in TG.