[3/3] The Tyranny of Metrics (Tyranny of indicators) (Category Management)

Beyond laying out cover, story about the book itself, story On the consequences of fascination with metrics, I decided to cite also a checklist, which leads in the last chapter Jerry Muller, the author of the book. The author cites it, since the indicators are useful if you follow the safety precautions and when creating the next indicators to spoil yourself through the checklist with a dozen questions.

1) What information are you going to control? The more closely an object of control resembles an inanimate object, the more likely it is to be quantified. Otherwise, the role will be spectator 2) How useful is this information? It is important to look not where the light is, as in the joke.

A drunk man looking for something under the light. A policeman comes to him and asks:

• What are you doing here?
• Looking for apartment keys.
• Where did you lose it?
• In the park.
• Why are you looking here?
• It's lighter here.

Is there any benefit to increasing the number of indicators? Performance assessment is better suited to identifying deviations (bad employees, violations of discipline)It does less good for workers at the middle/top of the scale. Plus additional indicators increase the cost of measurements 4) Would it hurt to abandon standardized estimates? Sometimes non-standardized metrics can be more effective. 5) For what purposes are quantitative estimates used or for whom are they intended? There is a key difference between the data that employees use for internal control and the data that external parties use for reward and punishment. Here comes the internal motivation and external motivation. (stimulation). If there is an orientation to external stimuli, then internal motivation at some point disappears, and it is very important for intellectual professions. 6) What is the cost of obtaining indicators? It is important to understand how expensive it is to collect indicators for reporting and compare with the benefits that they cause. 7) Ask why managers need performance indicators It is important to understand what they plan to use and continue to act on the circumstances. n How and who develops performance indicators? If they are lowered from above and created using magical formulas, they can often have a low effect. They make more sense if they are developed from the bottom up and when they are developed by people who are responsible for the work on the ground. 9) Remember that even the best performance can be distorted and deflected. Here we need to remember about the standard scheme with agents and principals. As a result, if we pay for performance, then the agent has the motivation to twist the metrics in his direction. This is not a reason to refuse them, but you need to understand the pros and cons of the decision. 10) Remember that sometimes wisdom begins with acknowledging the limits of what is possible. Not all problems can be solved, and even fewer can be solved with quantitative indicators.

#Data #Statistics #Management #Leadership #Processes