Management by the Numbers

Hi!

It's generally believed among manager-types that one can't improve what one doesn't measure. As a manager-type, I believe this to be true. However, it's also true that one tends to only improve what what measures... In other words, we more closely look at on that which we can see well. This reminds me of a joke:

A man is walking down the street at night and he happens on another man who is studying the ground under a street light. The first man asks the second what he's doing. "I'm looking for my ring. I had it in my pocket and when I took it out to put it on, I dropped it." "Did you drop it right here?" the first man asked. The second replied, "No, I dropped it across the street, but the light is better over here..."

The idea that managers might only look where it's easiest isn't far off. It's often really hard to measure what matters, so the result is that we turn what we can measure into what matters. This is because we want to reward employees based on "measurable" results. Unfortunately, what one can measure is not always what actually leads to (positive) results.

One of the guys on my team has been known to question proposed indicators thusly: "If you don't like the number that comes out of this, do you know what knob to turn to make it better?" I've take that a step further and will also ask, "And do you know for sure that you're not making something more important worse?" These questions have saved us from having to create many a useless indicator.

Providing meaningful indicators of positive performance is a challenge. I've been trying for years to collect the right data and am struggling against a system that seems to be setup to make it hard. I'm confident that it'll work in the end because I'm starting to get some traction. The more people who see what can be done, the more support we get. The poor economy is also making managers think harder about strategies that can make their teams more efficient. We're being asked to do more with the same, or less.

I know it's a cliche, but it's true that we have to work smarter...because most of us are already working as hard as we can.

Thanks,
Matt