Measurement
The Input Ratio
Of the organisations surveyed, the proportion that can name one instance, in the past two years, where a measure they produced changed a strategic decision before the thing it measured became a problem.
First reading
Not yet published
No number appears here until there is one worth publishing, with its sample size and method stated in full. A figure without a disclosed denominator is an output.
The two questions
The instrument is short by design. The first question is retrospective and the second is prospective, and an organisation can answer both without any assistance.
Name a single instance in the last two years in which a measure your own organisation produced — not an incident, not an audit finding, not a regulator's letter — changed a strategic decision before the thing it measured became a problem.
When the measures are next presented: if this number were twice as bad, what decision in front of us would change, today, before anything happens?
If there is a clear answer to the second question, the measure is an input and the governance is doing real work. If the honest answer is that the number would be noted, and discussed, and the decisions would proceed as planned, then an output has been mistaken for oversight.
What it does not do
This tells you whether the condition is present. It does not tell you how to remedy it, and it is worth being suspicious of anyone who says they can. The arrangement is stable because it serves the interests of most of the people inside it, which is precisely why a decade of better tools has not shifted it.
Reporting
Each reading will be published with the sample, the sector distribution, the wording used, and the raw response distribution. The series is intended to be comparable over time, which means the wording will not change once the first reading is published — including if it turns out to be imperfect.