There is no ending without a beginning, attempts to improve are no different.

"If you can't measure it, you can't improve it"-- Lord Kelvin

To improve can be roughly defined as making it better. Something can only be better in relation to something else, something it can compare itself to. Better is a relative/comparative word. It has to be better in relative/comparatively to something, it's not possible to be better in relation to nothing. So in the case of improving your service/product or your processes, that something else, can be your current status, your status quo; how is your service/product or your processes doing now? By answering that question, by knowing how you're doing now, you will clearly know if you need to improve it and if you do, it gives you a sense of direction of what and where needs improvement and how much you have improved after your improvement initiative. Not knowing where you were when you started your improvement initiative is like asking for directions through the phone without telling them where you are now, wherever you turn to, they can't tell you if you are any closer or farther from where you want to be because there is nowhere to compare to. Sort of the blind leading the blind, they have no idea where you are because they have no idea where you were. If they know where you were and all the lefts and rights you made, they should have a pretty good idea where you are now or how far you've gone and where you need to turn to get to where you want to be.

Knowing where you were (your starting point) and how far you've gone, is the key to understanding how much you have improved(positively or negatively). By measuring and comparing from where you are now (after the improvement initiative) to where you were at the beginning(before the improvement initiative), you will know whether you have gotten better or worse.

Tags: Improve, Measure, Direction, Relative, Comparative, Status