What gets measured gets done True or False - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

What gets measured gets done True or False - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Ive heard it often: What gets measured gets done. Its especially popular among proponents of Balanced Scorecards and similar management tools. I think its wrong. Click more and Ill tell you why I think so. Well first of all, what does the statement mean? Most often its used as a reason to measure performance in your organization, so it has several meanings: 1: If you want to make sure that something is done, you need to measure it. 2: You can adequately measure results 3: You can know the state of your organization through measurements I disagree. Its not that measurements in an organization are superfluous its just never the whole truth. Heres why I disagree with the statement: If you only accept the results that you can measure (and most people who tout the statement do), then the statement becomes a tautology and thus is meaningless. It then says in effect that What gets measured is what we have measured. So (and this is pretty funny) this statement only makes sense, if you accept the existence of non-measured results. And this is the whole point: In all organizations, much of the work done and much of the value created is unmeasured and maybe even unmeasureable. Lets say a person has a great day, and spreads a good mood in his department. Can you measure that? No! Is it important? Certainly! It can have a significant impact on that departments productivity. Lets say a project comes in on time and on budget. You can (and probably will measure that, as well you should). Maybe that project cost one of the key workers her marriage. Will that be measured? No! Is it important? Well, when she resigns in three months, it will be! So what gets measured is not what gets done. Theres so much else being done that has huge impact on your organization, which will never be measured. We must learn to live with this! Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related