Learn more about business with this collection
Why happiness is the ultimate goal
The importance of creating value
How to create wealth in the modern era
Many C-suite executives, supervisors, and managers are fixated on metrics to evaluate overall company performance and effectiveness. Employees are reminded that "What gets measured gets done."
Yet, there is another truth that is equally true. Jerry Muller, author of The Tyranny of Metrics: “Not everything that is important is measurable, and much that is measurable is unimportant.”
While metrics can help us stay focused on goals, they can also be dangerous.
17
194 reads
It's tempting to only rely on metrics that are easy to measure, but they often give us only half the story.
An obsession with performance indicators can make organizations rigid, shortsighted, and dismissive of innovation.
Data around reputation, loyalty, trust, satisfaction and more are also not easy to capture and may be misleading. For example, consider an employee who performs well in front of a demanding client but gets a lower feedback rating.
18
95 reads
The best way to build a culture where your team buys into the goals and feel intrinsically motivated starts with trust. Most companies measure trust by tacit approval and execution of plans or a lack of discussion on the goals. But that is not trust; it's obedience.
Trust is about safety. A better measure of safety is a willingness to speak the truth and be prepared to disagree with an idea, and have a willingness to let ideas win over authority. There must be room for failure, experimentation, innovation, and questions.
17
82 reads
Metrics can create a false sense of security.
For example, Peloton held on to a near-rabid fandom as evidence of their success. When regulators started to question the safety of the company's treadmills, they focused harder on the strength of their brand and attacked the agency and the accuracy of the reports.
By February, the stock fell almost 70%, the CEO was replaced by the board, and nearly 2,800 employees were being laid off. However, the marketing and manufacturing employees knew of the company issues but were not empowered to make the right decisions.
18
81 reads
More like this
6 ideas
How to demonstrate your value to your boss
fastcompany.com
4 ideas
How to use storytelling to build culture
fastcompany.com
2 ideas
How location-based pay can backfire
fastcompany.com
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving & library
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Personalized recommendations
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates