Management Through Measurement

Peter Trucker, a leader in the business management industry coined the popular phrase: “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” or stated differently: “What gets measured gets managed.”

When managing a business, how can you track progress, growth, and identify bottlenecks without having some sort of metric to compare it to? While this phrase is relevant in the business world, it also applies to injury management. When managing an injury, how can you track progress, growth, and identify setbacks without having some sort of metric to compare it to? 

What Do We Measure at Made 2 Move?

For clients who have been to PT before coming to Made 2 Move, they are often familiar with the paper questionnaires they fill out throughout their PT in these places. While many of these questionnaires are validated by research and can help track progress, they often miss the mark and are utilized because there is a lack of time to ask more probing, meaningful questions in session. 

At Made 2 Move, besides continually checking in with you (through ALL the questions), there are a few metrics we measure in assessing progress in PT. These metrics give a reliable and objective way to assess an athlete’s readiness to return to whatever they are currently limited in.

• Activities you want to do: Are we moving the needle to get back to these?

• Mobility: Are you able to move through greater ranges of motion with less pain or restrictions? 

• Pain Levels: Is your capacity for pain-free movement increasing? 

• Strength testing 

  • Dynamometry is one reliable and objective way your Made 2 Move PT can measure the forces that a muscle can exert and is a helpful tool to assess progress, particularly in the Made 2 Move ACL Lab. Since athletes rarely come to PT with pre-injury strength measurements, how do we assess their readiness to get back to their sport? Dynamometry allows your PT to take a look at between-limb force symmetries and ‘normative values from matched controls’ (Norris et al. 2023). In other words…

    • Between-limb force symmetries: How does your non-injured leg compare to your injured one? 

    • Normative values from matched controls: If we did the same test on one of your teammates whose knee is not injured, how much force could these athletes produce?

Goals, Objectives, and Strategies

Another concept in business that often coincides with measurement and management is the use of goals, strategies, and objectives. And this is very similar to the approach we use at Made 2 Move for injury management, as one of the very first things your PT will ask you is: What is your goal? (ie. Why did you come to see us at Made 2 Move?)

• GOALS are our big picture. 

• STRATEGIES are the approach we take to achieve the said goal. 

• OBJECTIVES are MEASURABLE steps taken to accomplish the said strategy.

Goals can look similar (lots of people are training for a marathon) but strategies and objectives are where individual nuances come into the picture to manage your unique injury. Let’s look at an example—a runner with foot pain. 

• GOAL: Marathon in November

• STRATEGIES: This is your game plan with your PT at Made 2 Move. Strategies could include: 

  • Strength training

  • Mobility work

  • Adding in more rest days or recovery work

  • Assessing and altering footwear

• OBJECTIVES: This is how you and your Made 2 Move PT track progress during your game plan. This is the ‘management through measurement’ piece. Objectives could include: 

  • Symptom Tracking: What aggravates and alleviates the foot pain? 

  • Activity Tracking: Am I able to run more miles or make it longer throughout the day without foot pain coming on? 

  • Individual Metrics: Whatever is most relevant to YOU and makes you say YES, we are making headway on this injury! 

To achieve long-term success in our goals, we have to do some ‘management through measurement.’ Some digging. A little analysis of metrics, some pulse checks on outcomes, and tracking overall data to gauge if we are truly making progress.

Sure, you are likely capable of managing your injuries on your own, but Made 2 Move PT can provide a roadmap to make the navigation and resolution of injury a little less challenging. PT gives you strategies, accountability, and a game plan in order to manage injuries effectively, so that you’re not back in our office in the future. 

Interested in working with a PT who will help you tackle and forecast your rehab so that ideally, we aren’t seeing you in PT for the same injury 6 months from now? Schedule your free consult at Made 2 Move today!