Instrument before executing — drift detection requires…

When This Fires

• Before executing any new strategy, process change, or initiative
• Before implementing any intervention whose effectiveness you want to evaluate
• When someone proposes measuring effectiveness "after we get going" — the baseline must be captured now
• Complements Build measurement systems when you design the strategy… (concurrent instrumentation) with the specific baseline-capture requirement

Common Failure Mode

Retroactive baselining: "Let's look at last quarter's data to establish a baseline." If last quarter's data wasn't captured with measurement intent, it may be incomplete, measured differently, or missing the specific metrics you need for comparison. True baselines are captured deliberately, with the same instrument that will measure post-change performance, at a defined moment before the change.

The Protocol

(1) Before any strategy execution begins, define: what will you measure to determine whether the strategy is working? (2) Measure those specific metrics now, before the strategy launches. This is your baseline. (3) Use the same measurement method (same instrument, same time window, same definitions) for baseline and ongoing measurement. Methodological consistency is essential for valid comparison. (4) Document the baseline measurements explicitly: "On [date], before [strategy] launched, [metric] was at [value]." (5) Compare ongoing measurements against baseline, not against memory or intuition. The baseline is the objective reference point that subjective recall cannot provide.