Closing the Intelligence Gap - Gary Cokins on Performance Management

Sadly, organizations remain reluctant to embrace new computational approaches, such as measuring future customer lifetime values to determine optimal marketing actions. Many are stubbornly wedded to tradition and lack the curiosity to learn things that can make a positive difference. This is peculiar, given that almost every branch of science has embraced computational modeling as invaluable for gaining insight into complex systems of interacting parts, where cause-and-effect links between can be tortuously convoluted.

If organizations are going to avoid sub-optimal decisions and mediocre improvements, they will need to be more imaginative. Computer modeling can be like a microscope for the mind, and integrating modeling with predictive analytics can become a telescope to see beyond perceived opinions or best guesses. Strategy maps, balanced scorecards, activity-based management, marketing campaign management – these are all examples of modeling behavior.

I am almost sixty years old. What do I want my business career legacy to be? I do have a good reputation for explaining performance management’s portfolio of integrated methodologies and solutions in ways that people can understand them. But that is not want I want to be remembered for. My desire is that I raised awareness that the impediments and barriers slowing the rate of adoption and integration of performance management methodologies are not technical – the software solutions are proven. The impediments are all social, such as human nature resistance to change, fear of knowing the truth, lack of executive leadership, lack of training, and so on. The key to success for implementing performance management is organizational change management and behavior modification. This is what I want to be remembered for.