The boards all flashed red. I knew they affected me but I couldn’t influence them. They indicated it would be another trip where clearing security would take a long while. 
I opened my backpack, took out my liquids bag, took my belt off, juggled my laptop as I repeatedly kicked my carry-on to keep up with the couple trudging on ahead of me.

Eventually I threw all my stuff down in the tray, I needed two for my bits of electronics. As I walked away I was called back,
“Sir, your hat.”

I looked at the boards again as I went through;
– Target hourly tray throughput: 700
Current throughput: 310 – red.
– Target trays per passenger: 1.6
Current trays per passenger: 2 – red.
– % Reject rate.
– Search wait time.

All lead measures I can understand, except reject rate, which I can only attribute to the foolishness of the days passengers. The lag measure would be on someone elses dashboard, lets call it ‘Average security clearance time’.

A lag measure is by definition measured after the actions taken to affect it have already passed. You can only use lag measures to identify problems and designate actions to remediate problems and implement solutions. Lasting, impactful change happens at the level of the lead measure.

A lead measure is defined as being predictive and influenceable. When you focus on lead measures, real change starts happening.

I loved the idea of a compelling scoreboard like these I saw at airport security, I was sold on the idea that a high performing team are most motivated by being able to understand well what winning looks like and to see how their individual contribution drives to a worthy outcome. 

Its exciting to know that what you are working on is predictive of success. Knowing that what I do matters, and is influencing our success is powerful.

That day my primary concern with this logic was manifested – what happens when everyone is losing. What do you do when all the boards are red? Very red.

Today I was heading through the same security, a man directed Rachel and I to the left.
“Leave your liquids and electronics in your bags”.
I look at a sign on the railing beside me;
“We are trialling a new security system – please leave all liquids and electronics in your bag.”

We were excited! Everyone in the line loved that we were selected, we were a part of the future! Maybe I’m projecting my feelings onto the rest of the queue a little, I didn’t ask.

The reality was that the line felt like it moved not much faster than usual, but there was a markedly increased ease to eveyones movements. There was no hunched shuffle to get a kindle and laptop out of a bag, no frantic resealing of a liquids bag that had closed previously but had now inexplicably shrunk. 

I always use two trays, I cannot recall a time I hadn’t. Not so today! Carry-on and a laptop bag – one tray, I was part of the lead measure, green.

The team hadn’t yet got themselves to the 700 throughput level, but they weren’t far off. The game had changed. It was now one they could win.

Picture the lever, on one end is the boulder, the lag measure we are trying to deal with – average security clearance times. It can’t be affected by willpower, it can’t be affected by measuring what we currently do if all the boards are bright red.

A good lead measure must be worthy and winnable according to Chris McChesney and the 4 Disciplines of Execution team. 

The lever works with a fulcrum, the lead measures had not changed inbetween my previous and current trips through this airports security. Instead the lead measures helped identify what was blocking the teams success. The fulcrum was their systems and processes, the death of the liquids bags has changed the game for those teams and changed the experience for passengers. 

Credit to the management team at Manchester Airport, when I was last there I feared you had grasped the importance of measuring the right things and making them visible for your team but failed to make the game winnable, thereby consistently demotivating your teams. Instead you used that finding to fix the fulcrum, upgrading the systems you use to enable improved performance of your teams and better experience for passengers.

As I turned away from my tray to walk through, a man behind me called out;
“Sir, your hat.”