What the heck is “AMB”?
I’m so glad you asked. It is an acronym for “Always Measure Backwards.”
This is a concept I learned as a member of Strategic Coach. And it is a concept I teach and practice with the Leadership Teams with whom I work, but I haven’t consistently practiced it in my own business.
As entrepreneurs and business owners, I hope you routinely measure the progress you are making in your organization. You may have a wall chart tracking monthly sales, or perhaps you look at a balance sheet at the end of the month to evaluate cash flow.
If you are running your business on EOS®, then I know you are measuring progress weekly with your Scorecard, and checking the health of your organization in your leadership team weekly Level-10 Meetings™. And the same tools are in place at the departmental level.
It is important to recognize that the only way you can determine if you are making progress in your organization is to measure that progress, regardless of which management system you use.
And the best way to evaluate your progress is to measure backwards.
It is easy to fall into the trap of looking at a sales goal each month, for example, and focusing on how much more the sales team needs to sell to achieve the annual sales goal. That leads to questioning ourselves, criticizing our colleagues, and maybe even feeling disappointed if last month wasn’t as great as the previous month.
In that example, you are measuring where you thought you would be rather than measuring your progress. If, however, you measure backwards, you will identify progress and maybe even identify some areas where opportunities lie. So, staying with the monthly sales goal example, celebrate the fact that your team increased sales 17% last month. That’s progress. That shows where your sales team is right now based on where they started.
Oh, and in case you are wondering—I’m improving my ability to AMB in my business, too! How about you?
If you’d like to discuss your AMB efforts or challenges, or just have questions about EOS®, please use the contact form below to schedule a time to chat with me. I would be happy to share my story as a business owner who implemented EOS®, and how I’ve used AMB with my clients’ businesses to gain a better understanding of trends and progress.
Let’s always measure backwards in order to always move forward in our businesses!
