Great metrics #1
What are you measuring?
More importantly – what does what you’re measuring tell you?
And just as importantly, what does what you’re NOT measuring tell you?
Speaking to a friend Sherry Lowry at the recent OD Network Conference, she told me that Austin Texas bought on average 28 books per year per person. The national average in the US? 5.
I love that as an eclectic metric that tells me a great deal about what I’d value in a place to live.
As you think about your own quest for Great Work, what do you measure? What don’t you measure?
As you think about your team’s quest for Great Work, what do you measure? What don’t you measure?
PS – Here are other “places I want to live” metrics I’d consider:
- How many miles of highway are there? How many kilometers of cycle paths?
- How many types of cheese are available?
- How many languages are spoken?
What ones have I missed?
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- Tom Jones on why you do Great Work
- How do you measure success?
- This is your score out of 10
- 5 things I’m learning about Great Work
- “When you eat a fruit, think of…” (Great Work quote)
Seattle -hint, hint – is the second most literate city in the US. If you ever wanted to live HERE.
Other metrics for a place to live:
education level
creative jobs mix
yoga studios
ethnic mix
proximity to nature (hint, hint: Seattle)
Metrics for a great place to live:
How about the range of cinemas, theatres, opera houses and concert halls
Percentage of the city given over to parks and open spaces
Art galleries and museums- especially accessible through offering free entry
Easy access to the sea
Writing from London I’d say we do pretty well. San Francisco, New York and Boston too perhaps ?
(free) educational events per square mile (aka concerts, museums, park ranger stations, ymcas, etc)
# of stars to be seen from the highest local point (could be mountain or roof of tall building)
# places to buy homemade/handmade/fair trade goods
# potluck block parties per year in a neighborhood
# of plays put on by non-commercial organizations (aka elementary through high schools, libraries, summer camps, etc)
and my favorite thing about any place I’ve ever lived:
*drum roll please*
the odds of walking around on any given day/night and of Finding Oneself in a/an
a. farmer’s market (St. Philip’s Plaza, Tucson AZ)
b. a capella concert/ jazz corner/ drum circle (or any type of live music) (in order of appearance: Catalina Coffee Company, Redondo Beach, CA; Pearl Street, Boulder, CO; Jackson Hole, WY)
c. traveling play (like “Midsummer Night’s Dream” through the Ann Arbor Arboretum, MI)
d. sidewalk chalk/ sand castle/ ice sculpture/ art contest
e. interactive water fountain/ acoustic sculpture/ kid’s bubble path
f. etc!
as a girl from Los Angeles, CA… I do love the ocean, mountains, and my mother’s cooking… but having traveled to such land-locked and radically different climates of MI, CO, WY, AZ, TX, I’ve come to crave the spontaneous, interactive surprises that creative and optimistic groups of people can produce… which are like an identical twins’ set of fingerprints: predictably unique every single time.
happy exploring!