Nowhere can indicators—and paired indicators—be of more help than in administrative work. Having come to this realization, our company has been using measurements as a key tool to improve the productivity of administrative work for several years. The first rule is that a measurement—any measurement—is better than none. But a genuinely effective indicator will cover the output of the work unit and not simply the activity involved. Obviously, you measure a salesman by the orders he gets (output), not by the calls he makes (activity).
