For those who weigh yourself every day, you know how effective this habit can be in achieving a goal and, better yet, maintaining it.
Having come to this regimen just recently, I have gained a new understanding of cause and effect. How can a couple of beers and a few slices of pizza possibly move a needle five pounds?
Actually, I have become so enamored with the power of this simple act of measurement that I have begun measuring everything I value. I measure minutes of exercise, hours of work, rounds of golf, books read, visits with friends. I have become a measuring fool. When friends and family question my sanity, I explain politely I have found no greater pleasure than to measure what I treasure.
You can imagine my joy when I recently saw an ad for a new book published by
The Wall Street Journal Guide to the 50 Economic Indicators That Really Matter. The book’s subtitle promises that readers who want to increase their wealth will learn all about “the indicators smart investors watch to beat the market.” Without question this book is a total vindication of my newfound life of measure
management.
Obviously, the authors, Simon Constable and Robert Wright, are a couple of bright fellows who understand the power of measurement to achieve a goal. Maybe I’m not that much of a fool after all.
Fool or not, this will not deter me from proposing what I believe to be a good idea: We put no less a body than Northeast Ohio on the scale and weigh whether it is making progress on becoming a better place for its citizens to raise a family and grow a business.
Borrowing from The Wall Street Journal, I propose we keep a record of the goals that really matter to our personal, social and economic health and measure our progress regularly. We can call it: “NeoScoreBoard: 50 Things That Really Matter in Improving the Lives of Northeast Ohioans.”
Does it bother you that we know more about the game plan of a Cleveland Browns game than we know about the plan for where this community is going and how we’re going to get there? We are bombarded constantly by random statistics: Cleveland is the fourth poorest city in America, Cuyahoga County has lost more population than any other large county … on and on it goes.
The problem with random statistics is that they’re random. We talk about them for a week or two, and they go away. Have you ever wondered if we do anything about them? Are we reducing poverty? Are we growing jobs? Are our kids getting smarter? Are we keeping college graduates or losing them? Wouldn’t it be nice to know at all times where we stand on the things that matter the most to us?
Not keeping track of what we want to accomplish can be a double whammy. We also lose track of all important projects that are succeeding. For example, the Fund For Our Economic Future just released research on one of the most important initiatives this region can undertake: reducing the cost of government.
Its research shows Northeast Ohio has a staggering 868 government entities (18 counties, 145 sewer and water districts, 222 school districts, 237 municipalities, 248 towns) that spend a total of $20 billion a year to run themselves. That turns out to be one government entity for every 4,000 citizens.
We know we cannot continue this level of spending and survive. Brad Whitehead, the Fund’s president, estimates that collaboration among these government entities could save more than $1 billion annually.
Yet the question is: Will we do it? Will we make the effort to measure progress? Up to this point, our track record says this initiative will be lost in the graveyard of random information. Hopefully that is about to change.
This column did not start out to be the beginning of a weights-and-measures operation for Northeast Ohio. Yet it aligns perfectly with the mission of
Inside Business’ Neoconomist to advance the economy of Northeast Ohio. Neoconomist has already begun to measure goals that are important to the region’s future with the help of research partners such as Team NEO, Cleveland State University, Baldwin-Wallace College, Kent State University and the Fund For Our Economic Future.
To date Neoconomist has committed to measure goals such as:
• Increasing gross regional product
• Increasing employment
• Promoting Northeast Ohio’s World Class Assets
• Reducing poverty in the city of Cleveland
• Reinventing Cleveland’s lakefront
With the addition of the Fund’s newest initiative of reducing the cost of government, we are off to a good start on reaching 50. We welcome organizations that are pursuing worthwhile goals to join us in creating NeoScoreBoard as the goalkeeper for the most important game of all: making Northeast Ohio a winner in business, culture and social achievement. As Andrew Carnegie liked to say, “Put all your eggs in one basket, and watch it closely.” We prefer to say, “Measure what you treasure.”
P.S. NeoScoreBoard will debut in the September issue of Neoconomist
.