When we set people number targets, they will deliver them. The problem is, we have no control over how they will produce the targets. They will use whatever process or behaviour works best for them to achieve the number set for them. For example, if you ask people to make sure patients are treated within four hours of arrival at A&E in a hospital, they might keep people back in the ambulance they arrived in; or they might move people out of A&E into a corridor; or they might send people to another hospital that is also overloaded. Meantime, the outcome that both we and the patient want is for them to be treated. We and they want to see themselves being discharged following treatment or moved on into further processes deeper into the hospital.
When number targets have this effect, they are behaving as toxic incentives. Whilst they almost always produce outcomes that we don’t want, number targets are routinely used to produce change. They are, in fact, the norm. One of the very first things that the development of D4 addressed is to find a replacement for number targets which will always and necessarily produce the outcomes the customer wants. Incidentally, the replacement for number targets also translates into producing the numerical outcomes we want! The technique uses things called “Recognition Events”. What they are, how to elicit them and how to use them is described in the D4 process.
Leave a Reply