Performance Evaluation
PRINTER FRIENDLY TEXT

“To throw our hands up and say…we cannot measure performance in the social (nonprofit) sectors the way you can in a business is simply lack of discipline. All indicators are flawed, whether qualitative or quantitative. Test scores are flawed, mammograms are flawed, crime data are flawed, customer service data are flawed, patient-outcome data are flawed. What matters is not finding the perfect indicator, but settling upon a consistent and intelligent method of assessing your output results, and then tracking your trajectory with rigor.”
— Jim Collins – Good to Great in the Social Sectors


Every agriculture association executive wants to discover the “silver bullet” of performance measurement. They seek a
simple and singular, quantifiable “halleluiah” activity that – if closely monitored – will signal that their association is on
the way to faster growth, enhanced producer satisfaction and more success.

What are you tracking? ROI on producer checkoff investments? Membership retention? Program satisfaction?
Non-dues income? However you answer, measurement systems have one core purpose…to satisfy the information
needs of those focused on providing leadership for an entire strategy – not just past financial performance.

Too often organizations rely on lagging historical data and financial indicators and forget to include those leading
indicators that will give them a picture of what is happening before the final bell. Today’s agriculture associations are
well served when they track a balanced set of performance indicators maintaining dual focus on past and present
performance. The work is not glamorous or easy. But once done, you provide real grist for strategy wheels to turn on.
The goal is to keep your organization’s collective head strategically focused on the tangible outcomes you seek to
accomplish.


Here is how we help you:
Evaluate your goals and objectives ensuring each strategic objective is aligned with the appropriate goal and
stated as an outcome rather than an activity.
Follow our practical methodology to help your leadership team identify and select a practical set of performance
indicators for each objective. Over time these indicators are refined and agreed upon and become the base of
the association’s measurement system.
Work with your team to build out the required variables and formulas to do key performance indicator (KPI)
calculations including source identification for acquiring the required data, data collection responsibilities and time
frames required.
Taken together, we will help your team develop and provide a reliable and accurate look at your strategic plan’s
objective level performance.
Guide your team to establish and maintain a performance reporting system that will provide regular data inputs
into and through web-based performance dashboard reports (available within MAPPware) becoming the final link
in your integrated network of strategic information.
Provide guidance, as needed, to the ongoing development and modifications of your performance metrics in
accordance with your strategic plan’s evolution.
Establish a continuous / sustainable internal strategic performance evaluation process.
 
 
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