One of my best days at work.

I was an employee of a software company.  I was in charge of Product Marketing for our ERP solution and my boss assigned me a special project.  The year-long assignment was to put together a team of people who could help move our DOS software customers to our current Windows product.  These faithful DOS customers had been using our product for more than 10 years without support, so this was not going to be an easy task. 

I was fortunate to have help from almost every department in the company and the support of our partners -we had a ball designing campaigns and coming up with a different twist for each quarter.   But here's where the cool part comes in.  The wonderful thing about the project was that we had an assigned unit objective and a way to see our performance against that goal. And we had complete control over a number of variables that impacted our ability to achieve the goal.  It was the perfect job- reasonable goals, with the right tools, measurable outcomes, and access to all of the people who would impact our ability to hit the target.  We designed special quarterly promotions, had a dedicated website, and got the job done.  I could run a report every single day and watch the results of any campaign or promotion.  And as the results rolled in, I could keep everyone informed of our progress. 

As you move up in an organization, the measurable, achievable stuff is few and far between.  Often you are given assignments and responsibilities with no way to really impact the outcomes.  Or you are given goals and can't monitor your progress against them.  Or maybe you know the variables, but you don't have the resources you need to change them.  You are assigned a target by someone in another country and then try your darndest to hit it.  But you don't really get much satisfaction out of the effort - whether you win or lose.

Wouldn't it be great if we could give everyone in every company accountability, the resources they need to get the job done, access to great tools, buyin from others who have a stake in the outcome, and measurable quarterly targets?  

I know what it feels like to watch the numbers exceed the target, quarter after quarter.  And to know that you made an impact. Those are the best days.  Every day should be like that.