Finding a Common Ground of Success

In our book, “Measure What Matters” written by Katie Delahaye Paine, Chapter 2 focuses on the planning part of measuring statistics of the media for businesses. Paine gives great advice, including an entire checklist of things to do to ensure accurate results before you get started with measurement. One piece of advice that she gave the reader stuck out to me: “By getting everyone to agree on a standard definition of success, you can far more easily judge your performance in the marketplace and relative to your competition.”

This is significant advice for a couple of reasons. For one, it is an important thought to keep in mind when beginning to measure data about your company and social media traffic. Everyone needs to be on the same page with the same goals in mind. Otherwise, miscommunication will occur and people may not be measuring the same things with the same objectives. To measure online data for your company, everyone on your team must have the same basic understanding of what it is you are looking for in the data you collect. That is the only way you will be able to successfully compare yourselves to your competition.

Another reason this is great advice is it can be generalized to any job or project. Teamwork is all about coming to an understanding with your teammates and making sure that everyone is working towards the same goals. This begins with defining what success is among the team. If people disagree on the definition of success, they won’t be working toward the same goal, and thus disruption would inevitably occur among the team and the data. Finding that common ground is an important part of business, but it is also an important part of life.