Similar but not the same
It may be semantics, but I think we confuse outcomes and outputs:
- A call that has been answered is an output
- A query that has been resolved is an outcome
- A “finished consultant episode” is an output
- A patient who has been treated is an outcome
- An order that has been shipped is an output
- An order that has been received — in one piece — is an outcome
- A shelf that has been stacked is an output
- Finding the product you want is an outcome
Customers desire outcomes, organisations deliver outputs. They are not always the same.
Where do you place your attention?
Outputs are easy to measure and manage. Output data rolls off systems and out of processes. Outputs are easy to quantify, target and incentivise. Outcomes — on the other hand — are nebulous, qualitative, dependent on the circumstances and vague.
How can you target a doctor on a patient outcome that might not happen for five years?
What matters?
Outcomes have significance. Outcomes have consequences. Outputs, by comparison, are poor imitations.
Of course, you can’t have outcomes without outputs, but pushing outputs won’t necessarily give your customers the outcomes they desire.
Not everything that can be counted counts. Not everything that counts can be counted
~ William Bruce Cameron
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Hello James,
Interesting – yesterday I was involved in just this conversation / distinction with a potential client. Interestingly the client was on the ball he understood the distinction well – placing his emphasis on outcomes, not solutions, not outputs….
It occurs to me that folks on organisations ignore outcomes especially when it comes to Customer outcomes as these are not readily measurable. Or because focusing on and reporting these would give a not so flattering picture of performance. Or it could simply be the expression of history: manufacturing / production focus of early business when the business was getting product out of the door like x number of Fords.
Incidentally, I do not find myself in entire agreement with you. A patient that has been treated does not occur as an outcome. It you think of the Emergency dept, in a hospital, an output metric could be the number of people treated that day. And using this metric the focus would be in getting folks seen and out of the door whilst in the process sacrificing the degree of care and even the outcome. Which outcome? The number of patients healed such that no recurring symptoms, no need for another operation to remove the instruments that were left inside the first time. What do you think?