Companies that work on their health not only achieve measurable improvements in their organizational well-being but demonstrate tangible performance gains in as little as 6 to 12 months. This holds true for companies across sectors and regions, as well as in contexts ranging from turnarounds to good-to-great initiatives.

Our recommendation is clear: start managing your organizational health as rigorously as you do your P&L, providing pathways for leaders at all levels to take part, embedding and measuring the new ways of working.

We think of organizational health as more than just tracking financial results, culture or employee engagement. It is the organization’s ability to align around a common vision, execute against that vision effectively, and renew itself through innovation and creative thinking. It is relating current business processes to future profitability. Put another way, health is how the ship is run, no matter who is at the helm and what waves rock the vessel. We’ve long seen a strong, static correlation between health and financial performance.

Given all the data and practical experience that supports working on health, companies’ obsession with the P&L alone continues. It is right that leaders manage their P&L meticulously, but why not do the same for their health? In fact, why not measure health frequently throughout the year, since it is a leading indicator of future performance, whereas financial results are a lagging one? Similarly, why do the vast majority of employee-performance dialogues focus on progress against financial targets, and not on whether behavior is contributing to organizational health?

Some examples of measuring organizational health:

• Sales: Revenue enhancement opportunities (targeting) and creating a high-performance sales organization by consistently improve pricing, salesforce effectiveness, product mix, customer selection and focus. Create a resource efficiency index (kpi dashboard) to monitor your return on investment.
  
  
• Go To Market Strategy: Go to market strategies, product/market segment contributions, market share strategy, resource distribution and balancing to get the most from your cost investment. Create a resource efficiency index (kpi dashboard) to monitor your return on investment.
  
  
• Delivery & Support Organization effectiveness: Delivery of commercial best practices that maximize profitable revenue and resource distribution and balancing to get the most from your cost investment. Create a resource efficiency index (kpi dashboard) to monitor your return on investment.
  
  
• Customer Satisfaction: Establish both internal and external links to your customers, and consistently drive the NPS to the best in the industry. Create a resource efficiency index (kpi dashboard) to monitor your return on investment.
  
  
• Employee Satisfaction: Understanding that driving an efficient organization, will greatly influence the perception and energy of your workforce, utilize a process that consistently facilitates and rewards enhancement feedback thoughts and ideas from your teams.