The industry I am in, we give too much importance to metrics. Our success, failures, and improvements each of it depends on the numbers. The side effect of this is that we end up giving more importance to metrics than execution and results. I picked this book title: the tyranny of metrics by Jerry Muller.
The book covers many industries and how putting metrics as an incentive for salary or promotion resulted is worsening the service.
The author sites some flaws, the outcome of measuring metrics. These are the contents of the book.
We end up measuring the most easily measurable.
We end up measuring inputs rather than outcomes.
We result in degrading information quality through standardization.
At instances, we end up lowering standards by improving numbers.
Many instances, Police did not report a burglary, rape cases for better metric on crime numbers by distorting and omitting data.
Our 2008 financial crisis is a result of cheating with the metrics.
At instances, hospitals did not admit many sick patients and sent them to other hospitals. It will result in less fatality after operated in those hospitals.
Does it mean measuring metrics should not happen? The author has presented with a checklist in case we have to do productivity measurement on metrics.
- What kind of information are you thinking of measuring?
- How useful is the information?
- How useful are additional metrics?
- What are the costs of not relying on standardized measurement?
- To whom information be made transparent?
- What are the costs of acquiring the metrics?
- Ask why the people at the top of the organization are demanding performance metrics.
- How and by whom are the measures of performance developed?
- Remember that even the best measures are subject to corruption and goal diversion.
- Remember that sometimes, recognizing the limits of the possible is the beginning of wisdom.