How being on-target can put you off-track
The famous Peter Drucker quote goes "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it".
I was having a chat to my colleague Chris Curnow the other day when he defiantly said "If you can measure it, it's probably not worth managing". He articulated (more succinctly than I could) an idea that's been rattling around in my mind for ages.
It came up again this morning when I appeared with Rohan Dredge on the #ForLeaders TV stream (a recording of which will be available soon).
There's a paradox at play when we try to measure those concepts which are important to us; the measure replaces the concept.
For example: we wanted to reduce the road toll, and placed an enormous focus on measuring speed... and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that people spend so much attention and energy managing their speed that they fail to drive safely in many other respects.
My sister-in-law (who lives in the hippy enclave with the rest of our eclectic clan) is a Big-Four Firm auditor, specialising in sustainability and diversity audit. The stories she shares at the dinner table make it clear that however pure their original intentions, the organisations she's auditing actually care about their sustainability and diversity measures more than they care about sustainability and diversity.
A measure can only ever be a signpost. And when we value signposts more than destinations, we have a problem.
In my conversation with Rohan this morning, he asked a question about measuring engagement which forced me to admit that I have a personal animosity with measures of engagement, because they have exactly the same effect; the measures become the goal.
When a leader is focused on raising the numbers that measure engagement, by definition they are no longer focused on elevating engagement.
Does that mean you should never measure anything? No. But it does mean you should remain vigilantly suspicious of all your measures, and consciously aware that the destination is more important than the signpost.
P.S. — If you’d like some help getting your business on-track, send me an email.
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