Measuring individuals to improve their performance is a common practice in many fields, but does it really work? Rarely, and more likely never. Performance measures are often perceived as punitive, making people feel judged rather than supported. This does not create a conducive environment for genuine improvement. This issue is particularly relevant when dealing with ex-offenders reentering society, as societal judgment and rigid metrics can hinder their rehabilitation and reintegration.

The Impact of Measuring Ex-Offenders’ Performance

Measuring the performance of ex-offenders often disengages them from the process of rehabilitation. The symptoms of this approach include:

• Focusing on Trivial Metrics: Ex-offenders may concentrate on easily achievable, superficial goals rather than substantive change.
• Gaming the System: To meet imposed targets, they might manipulate outcomes instead of genuinely improving their behavior or skills.
• Shifting Goalposts: They might alter their objectives to meet easier targets, avoiding meaningful progress.

These behaviors do not lead to real improvement but rather to worse outcomes, perpetuating a cycle of recidivism and social exclusion. Efforts to create cheat-proof measurement systems often fail, leading to defensiveness and resistance instead of meaningful engagement.

A New Approach: Empowering Ex-Offenders Through Self-Measurement

To foster real improvement, we must shift from measuring ex-offenders to empowering them to measure their own progress. This approach involves providing autonomy, mastery, and purpose:

Autonomy

Allow ex-offenders to set their own goals and choose the metrics that matter to them. This fosters a sense of ownership and responsibility. When people have autonomy, they will choose measures that help them understand their performance and motivate them to improve. This self-directed approach can help ex-offenders see their progress in a way that is meaningful to them and encourages sustained effort.

Mastery

Equip ex-offenders with the skills needed to measure and improve their performance, boosting their confidence and capability. Mastery involves training and support to help them understand how to set realistic goals, track their progress, and make necessary adjustments. When ex-offenders feel competent and capable, they are more likely to take initiative and work towards long-term success.

Purpose

Help ex-offenders see how their efforts contribute to their rehabilitation and reintegration, giving their work meaning and importance. Purpose connects their daily activities to larger goals, such as rebuilding their lives, contributing to their communities, and achieving personal growth. When ex-offenders understand the significance of their efforts, they are more motivated to stay committed and make positive changes.

Redefining Accountability for Ex-Offenders

Traditional accountability measures often focus on compliance and punishment. Instead, we should redefine accountability to emphasize:

1. Monitoring Key Results: Encourage ex-offenders to track meaningful progress markers. This involves identifying the most relevant indicators of success, such as maintaining employment, completing educational programs, or engaging in community service. By focusing on these key results, ex-offenders can see the tangible outcomes of their efforts and stay motivated to continue their progress.

2. Interpreting Measures Validly: Teach ex-offenders to understand what these metrics indicate about their progress. This includes helping them interpret their performance data accurately and use it to make informed decisions about their next steps. Valid interpretation ensures that ex-offenders are not misled by their metrics and can adjust their strategies as needed to achieve their goals.

3. Initiating Improvement Actions: Empower ex-offenders to take corrective actions when needed. This means providing them with the tools and support to address any issues or setbacks they encounter. By fostering a proactive approach to problem-solving, ex-offenders can develop resilience and adaptability, which are crucial for long-term success.

Steps to Implement the New Approach

Involvement

Engage ex-offenders in setting and understanding their goals using techniques that ensure these goals are clear, specific, and measurable. Involvement is key to fostering a sense of ownership and commitment. There are a few ways to do this:

1. Goal Setting: Involve ex-offenders in wording their goals so they are crystal clear, specific, and measurable. Use techniques like SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) to help them create meaningful objectives that they can work towards. This process helps ex-offenders understand what they need to achieve and why it matters.

2. Measure Design: Involve ex-offenders in designing measures of their goals, to at least understand and possibly influence the choice of measures they are accountable for. This helps them see how to quantify the most relevant and feasible evidence of their goals into performance measures. By participating in this process, ex-offenders can ensure that the metrics used are fair and relevant to their circumstances.

3. Data Collection: Involve ex-offenders in defining the calculation and data collection for their measures. This includes choosing the best data sources and methods for tracking their progress. When ex-offenders are involved in this process, they can gain a deeper understanding of how their performance is measured and how to interpret the results accurately.

Accountability

To feel a sense of ownership of a measure, ex-offenders need to know what they really should be doing with that measure. And this is the perfect time to redefine what your organization means by accountability.

A constructive definition of accountability drives the right behavior. The behavior is right when it is trying to fundamentally improve performance and not do the gaming and goalpost-shifting that comes from being measured.

Accountability probably isn’t defined in your organization, is it? Try this constructive definition of accountability, with three essential parts to it:

1. Monitoring the Important Results: Encourage ex-offenders to track meaningful progress markers.
2. Interpreting the Performance Measures: Teach ex-offenders to understand what these metrics indicate about their progress.
3. Initiating Improvement Action: Empower ex-offenders to take corrective actions when needed.

For this type of accountability to become the new norm, it needs constant discussion, reflective practice, and reinforcement from leaders. That will take time, but it’s definitely not a reason to wait: start now with discussing this meaning of accountability. More people will step up to this type of accountability.

Overcoming Leadership Resistance

Leaders often resist abandoning traditional measurement methods due to entrenched beliefs about control and accountability. However, these beliefs need to evolve:

• Understanding System Constraints: Recognize that individual performance is often limited by systemic issues. This means shifting the focus from blaming individuals to addressing the broader context in which they operate. By improving the systems and processes that support ex-offenders, leaders can create a more supportive environment for rehabilitation and reintegration.

• Valuing Intrinsic Rewards: Acknowledge that intrinsic motivation drives long-term commitment and improvement. Research by Dan Pink and others shows that intrinsic rewards, such as a sense of accomplishment or being part of something bigger, are more powerful motivators than extrinsic rewards like money or grades. Leaders need to create opportunities for ex-offenders to experience these intrinsic rewards in their work.

• Building Trust: Trust ex-offenders to take ownership of their rehabilitation process. Many leaders believe that employees or ex-offenders cannot be trusted to get the work done; that they have to be actively managed or they’ll just slacken off. However, with a shared purpose and supportive environment, most people want to contribute to something bigger than themselves. Building trust involves giving ex-offenders the autonomy, support, and resources they need to succeed.

Case Study: Pharmaceutical Company

A pharmaceutical company faced similar challenges with a trivial Call Rate measure for account managers. By redefining accountability and involving employees in meaningful performance discussions, they shifted from punitive measures to empowering improvement.

The leadership team experimented with our new definition of accountability by holding a “Live Learning” session. They involved the account managers in figuring out what the whole organization needed to do to improve performance in reaching their customers to have the right impact. This approach can be adapted for ex-offenders by involving them in similar discussions and collaborative problem-solving sessions.

Conclusion

To truly support ex-offenders in their journey towards reintegration, we must stop measuring them in traditional ways. Instead, we should help them measure and improve the processes they work within. This shift will foster genuine engagement, build trust, and ultimately lead to better outcomes for individuals and society.

By providing autonomy, mastery, and purpose, and redefining accountability to focus on meaningful progress, we can create a supportive environment that encourages ex-offenders to take ownership of their rehabilitation. Leaders play a crucial role in this transformation by shifting their beliefs about control and performance, and by fostering a culture of trust and intrinsic motivation.

When organizations stop measuring people and instead empower them to measure and improve their processes, they embark on a journey towards high performance and successful reintegration for ex-offenders.