A colleague once told me that he tried to stop putting sugar in his coffee. It wasn’t his first attempt. He had tried several times before. He knew it would be better for his health. He knew that he didn’t really need the sugar. He also knew that many others drank coffee without sugar without any problems. But every time it ended the same way. The coffee tasted bad. After a few days, the sugar was back.
One day I mentioned in passing that for many years I had always been praised by the dentist for my well-kept teeth. I also told him that one of the biggest changes I had made over the years was to stop putting sugar in my coffee. A few days later he came back. He had stopped. Completely.
The strange thing was that nothing had really changed. The coffee still tasted different. The challenge was the same. The goal was the same. But the measure had changed. Previously, he had measured his success against the taste of coffee. Now he began to measure it against the image of stronger and healthier teeth. And suddenly the behavior became possible. It sounds like a little story about coffee. But it’s actually about something much bigger. It’s about how we govern our lives, our teams, and our organizations through what we choose to measure.
KPIs are actually attention systems
When people hear the word KPI, they often think of businesses, financial reports, and governance. But in practice, we use KPIs everywhere. Every time we choose a metric, we direct our attention. And attention is one of the most powerful forces there is to change behavior.
The problem is that we almost always measure the direct goal:
- If we want to lose weight, we measure kilograms.
- If we want to sell more, we measure sales.
- If we want to be innovative, we measure the number of ideas.
- If we want to be more efficient, we measure productivity.
But sometimes something strange happens. The more we focus on the goal, the harder it becomes to achieve. As if the goal is trying to avoid us. This is often because people are not driven by results. We are driven by experiences, relationships, meaning, and behaviors. That’s why the most powerful KPIs can sometimes be the indirect ones. Those that measure a side effect instead of the result itself.
Innovation by measuring something else
Creativity begins when we ask an unusual question:
- If we actually succeed in our goal, what will happen?
- What will be the consequence?
- What will be the side effect?
- What will be the visible sign that we are on the right track?
Instead of measuring the goal, we can then start measuring its footprint. It’s a bit like following footprints instead of chasing the person directly. And sometimes footprints are much easier to follow.
The personal level
At the individual level, this is especially powerful because people are often guided more by identity than by logic. If someone wants to exercise more, it’s easy to start measuring kilometers. But kilometers are abstract. After a few weeks, the numbers get boring.
Instead, imagine that the person starts measuring how many dogs they run past every day. Suddenly, something happens. Exercise no longer becomes a training project but a way of discovering the world. Each dog becomes a small proof of movement. A playful measure that creates curiosity instead of achievement.
Or think about food. Many people try to eat variedly by following diet plans or nutritional recommendations. But you could just as easily measure the number of new flavors you have experienced during the week. Then the focus shifts from discipline to the joy of discovery. Behavior changes without feeling like a sacrifice. That is often how values change. Not through arguments. But through people starting to pay attention to something else.
Anyone who starts measuring the health of their teeth instead of the taste of their coffee will gradually reevaluate their relationship with sugar. Anyone who starts measuring experiences instead of achievement will often move more. Anyone who starts measuring curiosity instead of knowledge will often learn faster.
Team level
The same mechanism exists in work groups. Most teams measure productivity, deliveries and results. And of course, such measures are important. But they often say very little about why a team works well. If we look at high-performing teams, we often see that they are characterized by something completely different.
- People help each other.
- People laugh together.
- People dare to ask for help.
- People show consideration in everyday life.
The interesting thing is that these behaviors are often the cause of efficiency rather than the effect of it. Yet they are almost never measured.
Imagine a team that starts tracking how many times people help each other during a week. Or how many times someone has picked up coffee for a colleague. Or how many spontaneous laughs occur during the workday.
At first, it sounds almost ridiculous. But after a while, people start to notice the behaviors. And what is noticed tends to grow. When people help each other more, the exchange of knowledge increases. When people laugh more, stress decreases. When people feel seen, trust increases. And when trust increases, productivity often goes through the roof without anyone actively trying to become more productive. This is systems thinking in practice. Instead of optimizing the result, you optimize the conditions for the result.
The level of collaboration
At the organizational level, this becomes even more interesting. Many organizations measure sales, market shares, costs and efficiency. But few measure the social and cultural forces that create long-term innovation capacity.
Imagine an organization that starts measuring how often people celebrate successes. Or how many new people they have met in a month. Or how many collaborations have been created between departments that do not normally work together. Suddenly the focus shifts. Innovation is no longer about demanding more ideas. Innovation is about creating more meetings between people, perspectives and experiences.
The same applies between organizations.
- How many close collaborations do we have with other regions?
- How many external perspectives have we allowed in?
- How often do we get positive feedback from people who do not work for us?
These measures often say more about future innovation capacity than many traditional key figures.
Society’s Invisible KPIs
At a societal level, the question becomes almost philosophical. What we measure affects what we value. And what we value affects the decisions we make.
Take the climate issue. Much focus falls on emission levels, energy consumption and technical solutions. These are important metrics. But what if we also started measuring access to clean water, clean air and food without harmful additives. Then the story changes. Suddenly the climate issue is not just about reducing something negative. It is about creating something positive.
The same applies to AI. The discussion often revolves around parameters, energy consumption, models and technical capacity. But these metrics actually tell us very little about why the technology exists. Perhaps the most important metric should be something completely different.
- How many lives have been saved
- How much better has healthcare become?
- How many students have received a better education?
- How much healthier has nature become?
- How much human suffering has been avoided.
When we measure these effects, we also start to use technology in a different way. The measure drives the ambition.
A simple model for finding indirect KPIs
There is a simple method that works for both individuals and teams.
- Start with the goal you think you want to measure.
- Then ask: if we succeed in this, what will people experience?
- Next, you ask: what will they do more of?
- And finally: what will we be able to observe in everyday life?
That is where you often find the indirect measures. If the goal is better health, the observable effect might be more walks with friends. If the goal is better collaboration, the observable effect might be more spontaneous helping efforts. If the goal is innovation, the observable effect might be more meetings between people who normally don’t meet. Instead of measuring the end result, you start measuring the behaviors that make the end result possible.
Measuring the future instead of history
Most KPIs are actually historical. They tell you what has already happened. Sales show yesterday. Productivity shows yesterday. Results show yesterday.
But indirect KPIs work differently. They act more as early signals. They tell us something about where the system is headed. A team full of laughter, helpfulness and trust is likely to perform better in the future. An organization that builds many new relationships is likely to be more innovative in the future. A society that creates clean air, clean water and strong ecosystems is likely to build better conditions for future generations.
The indirect measures therefore do not just become metrics. They become compasses.
What we measure becomes what we see
Perhaps the most fascinating thing about KPIs is that they do not just measure reality. They create it. When my colleague stopped focusing on the taste in his coffee cup and started focusing on his teeth, his behavior changed almost immediately. Not because the goal changed. But because the perspective changed. And perhaps that is precisely where the real power of innovation lies.
Not in finding better goals. But in finding smarter things to measure.
Because what we choose to measure becomes what we pay attention to.
And what we pay attention to ultimately becomes what we build our lives, our teams, and our communities around.
