Value Impact Goals™

Most organisations measure the wrong things, then wonder why nothing changes. Key Performance Indicators count activity: calls made, tickets closed, units shipped. They tell you almost nothing about whether any of it made a difference. Value Impact Goals™ (VIGs™) measure the difference instead.

A VIG anchors the work in Value (the reason it’s worth doing), drives it through Impact (the measurable difference it makes), and lets the Goals emerge from the two. Meaning and outcome, not activity.

What are Value Impact Goals?

A way of setting goals that starts from purpose and measurable difference rather than from a target. VIGs measure whether the work mattered, not just whether it got done. They’re built from three parts, Value, Impact, and Goals, and the order they come in is the whole point.

Why replace KPIs?

KPIs were built for a different era, when counting activity was a fair stand-in for value. They reward the minimum: set a target, the team hits it, and the moment they hit it they stop. And they report in the rear-view mirror, telling you what already happened, often weeks after it stopped mattering.

The shift, in a line each: KPIs count outputs; VIGs measure outcomes. KPIs set a target; VIGs anchor in purpose. KPIs freeze last quarter; VIGs move with the business.

The three parts

• Value. The why: the long-term purpose the work serves, and the people it serves. The benchmark everything else is judged against.
• Impact. The measurable difference the work makes, tangible (revenue, retention, error rate) and intangible (trust, loyalty, reputation). Impact is what proves the Value is real.
• Goals. Not where you start, where you arrive. With Value and Impact clear, the right goals become obvious. Goals are tools, not totems.

The three Accelerators

Three simple practices keep VIGs alive. Most organisations do none of them.

• Visualisation. Describe, in detail, what the business looks like once the Value is delivered. Teams that can’t say where they’re going don’t get there.
• Reflection. Stop often enough to ask whether the activity still serves the Value. It’s how the framework stays honest.
• Gratitude. Recognise progress, specifically. It reinforces the behaviour that produces Impact, and keeps the people producing it.

Common questions

Aren’t VIGs just KPIs with nicer names? No. A KPI counts what happened. A VIG measures the difference the work made, and it starts from purpose rather than a target. It produces different behaviour, which is the only thing that changes performance.

Do we throw our KPIs away? Not necessarily. Some of those numbers still matter, but as evidence of Impact, not as the goal itself. What changes is what you anchor to.

Where do the goals come from? From the Value and the Impact. Get those two clear and the goals write themselves, and they’re better than the ones you would have set first.

Next step

The detailed version has the full anatomy, why VIGs outperform KPIs, and how to put them to work. Or see how the Engagement Experience Quotient (XQ™) measures the felt side of that Impact.