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Here’s what Craig says in the video
Hi everybody. Hey it’s Craig Freshley here. How do you measure success? Success of a company? Success of a country? Typically we look at a number, probably an economic number like profit or gross domestic product.
A couple weeks ago a report was published called Measures of Growth and this report defines success of the State of Maine using 29 different indicators. This is a report that I know something about. I was the lead researcher and author of the first eight editions. Let’s take a look.
The report is published annually by the Maine Development Foundation where I used to work. In the nineties there was a growing awareness about sustainable development and the need to define success more broadly than just with economic indicators. So this group came up initially with 57 different indicators in 7 different categories, and for each indicator there is a chart as to where we have been and there’s a benchmark for where we want to be.
In 1997 we went a little crazy and produced a 2-page newsletter every week we mailed them to subscribers, and at the end of the year we bound them up in this book. Fifty-two weekly newsletters. Craig’s first weekly.
You might even call it a fad. There was this sense that whatever you measure gets managed and so countries, states, communities, were developing sets of indicators for all sorts of things; basically things that people wanted to improve in the future.
Here in the State of Maine the Maine Development Foundation — the same group that produced Measures of Growth — was commissioned to produce indicators of Livable Communities, indicators of Maine’s Transportation System, indicators of Maine’s Natural Resource-based Industries, indicators of the Health of Children and Communities, and even one just for a county: Indicators of Sustainable Development.
On a national level the United States was working on an Experimental Set of Indicators. I had the pleasure of working on this experimental set of indicators. I was called to Washington DC. This group was commissioned by President Clinton who at the time also commissioned a President’s Council on Sustainable Development.
In the mid-nineties a Genuine Progress Indicator was proposed: a composite index of 25 or so different things. A much better way to measure progress, the authors contended. While Gross Domestic Product has continued to rise in the United States, genuine progress actually began to level off and decline in the early seventies.
What all of these reports try to do is make the case that quality of life is about more than just a healthy economy. It also depends on healthy community (social issues) and of course it depends on a healthy environment. And so we have indicators not just about economic health but also community health and environmental health. This experimental set of indicators for the United States same 3 categories; economic, environmental, social.
The idea behind all of this is the notion that by calling out specific indicators we can influence policy in such a way that influences those indicators, that moves those needles or raises or lowers those graphs. This is a statement as to what is most important to the state of Maine and as citizens and policy makers and businesses it works well if we try to work on these issues.
As you look back at the past year and look forward to the year ahead, either on your own behalf or thinking of a group that you’re part of, consider how you would measure success. You need not be limited to economic indicators.
Thanks for listening everybody. I hope this helps your group make good decisions.
