Making my way across the Harvard bridge, the goal was to get over to the Cambridge side of the Charles River and enjoy the sights and sounds along the river.
Curiosity Got The Best of Me
But as I crossed the bridge, I started to notice numbers painted on the sidewalk along with the word “SMOOTS”. It became apparent as I made my way across the bridge that the numbers were increasing in increments all the way across the bridge.
It wasn’t until after my walk that curiosity got the best of me. I Googled “numbers on Harvard Bridge” and discovered the numbers go back to an M.I.T fraternity prank. To gain acceptance into fraternities, pledges do all sorts of crazy things dreamt up by their pledge-master.
How Far Do I Have to Go
In 1958, Oliver Smoot at 5′ 7″ tall, was the shortest pledge to the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. His pledge master, feeling frustrated with the long walk from his apartment to campus across Harvard Bridge, wanted to know how far he still had to go on the bridge before arriving at M.I.T. So about 10 p.m. one night, he assigned Oliver Smoot to repeatedly lay down all the way across the bridge while others from his pledge class painted a line every 10 SMOOTS. How many SMOOTS does it take to get across the bridge? The answer from Smoot and his crew: “364.4 plus or minus an ear”.
Measures Bring Meaning
The tradition stuck. The city of Boston was considering cleaning up the defaced sidewalks but determined to leave them when they realized that police were using the measure to designate the locations of accidents on the bridge. Now the markings are repainted in broad daylight every year as a part of fraternity tradition.
Predicting the Future
Just as seeing your present SMOOT location on a bridge can help you see progress and predict the effort and timing of your future arrival, Measures in your business help you to see the future.
What Gets Measured Gets Done
Teams that create and effectively use a Scorecard or Dashboard with 5 to 15 key business measures know that what gets measured gets done! They ultimately find that the work required to track and report key measures actually saves time because it brings so much clarity and organizational transparency.
Detect Deviations — Make Course Corrections
This helps people to be accountable for the contribution they are making to move the company toward the Vision. And reporting on the 13-week, rolling, at-a glance Scorecard every week helps you detect deviations from your goals while there’s still time to do something about it. You also begin to see trends that help you predict the future!
NEXT STEPS FOR YOU
How would you like to know your progress across the long bridge to your Vision for the future? Give me a call and let’s create a Scorecard that helps you and your team to clearly view what’s happening in the present so you can better predict and see the future!
Stay focused! I’m here to help…
Chris