Use a Proxy to Force Change
A proxy is a representative value or measure (figure) that can be used as part of a calculation. You see the use of proxy calculations in economics and social science studies. The S&P 500 Index, DOW and NASDAQ are all giant forms of proxy calculation. You need to use it in your efforts to change behavior.
You use a proxy when you are unable to directly measure a particular action or activity. We normally see the use of a proxy when calculating the quality of life or defining a measurement for the standard of living. For instance, you wish to measure a feeling, such as happiness or anger, of a group of people and the possible cause of that emotion. You can indirectly associate whether or not they had coffee on the day they reported their specific emotions via the use of a simple binary response counted, 1 for yes, 0 for no, and tally the results. Depending on the number of people that reported getting coffee you could relate the measurement to happiness or morale. Or if your business releases a new HR initiative and you want to capture the mood based on the information as it is consumed by employees. Measuring or counting feelings through a survey to determine what behavior changes need to be made with HR when a new initiative is released. Even the IT world has taken on the use of a proxy by definition of a proxy server. An intermediary server that ends up being a front-facing public connection as part of an isolation, adding a layer of security. The server but not the real server.
Typical uses of proxies are seen when a selection of a value or measure that closely correlates or sometimes parallels the specific measure that you want to find where you want to measure. The value may behave the same — it goes up when a particular perception goes up, suggesting a linear relationship. Sometimes it may actually be a negative value when you’re seeking a positive measure of an outcome. Fewer cigarette purchases result in fewer doctor appointments. One particular proxy that I will be measuring is health quality through the use of basal metabolic rate (BMR) and basal metabolic index or BMI measurements. They can indirectly change behavior as they relate to my expanding waistline. Caloric intake and burn balanced against a calculated (indirect) measurement of your body fat percentage. Proxy calculations are not always perfect, but it gives you a measure or the value of something indirectly that initiates a behavior change. Measurements force change.
A proxy that you could begin to use in your organization is a measure of morale versus quantity of communication from management or leadership. Humans do not like to be surprised and depending upon the level of communication or amount of detailed information that is shared, if not enough or the right quality, FOMO will take over and we start to freak out. By measuring the amount of communication, leadership teams and management teams will change behavior and make the effort to communicate more often. Openly polling employees if they are aware of the communication message can be a measure of quality. Higher quantity and higher quality will both lead to higher morale. Additionally, if the communication is modified to support bi-directional communications, the employee input is heard and put to use and measured, an increase in morale will be seen to increase even more dramatically.
Additional uses of proxies suggest productivity and output through the measure of hours worked and how it can relate to throughput or output. Or a decrease in raw materials suggesting an increase in output. However, in that particular use, a decrease in raw materials, with a subsequent decrease in shipments, may indicate an increase in scrap or a decrease in quality.
The key is to find a good proxy that you can use to give some sort of measurable indicators of the value set that you are trying to measure. It is a good representation of something that you cannot directly witness and measure.
Go forth and be brilliant.
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