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This is where metrics and KPIs part ways. Metrics are often poor proxies for the thing you actually want to drive, but a thoughtful leader can easily mitigate t
by mumblemumble 6y ago
This is where metrics and KPIs part ways. Metrics are often poor proxies for the thing you actually want to drive, but a thoughtful leader can easily mitigate that effect by monitoring several metrics and understanding how they combine to form a more holistic picture.
That can all fall apart rather quickly as soon as you turn something you're measuring into a performance indicator that will be imposed on people as a way of assessing how well they're doing their job. If there's any room at all to game the numbers, then you've just created a huge incentive to do so, and it will happen. At which point the thing you're measuring has stopped being a metric in any meaningful sense of the term.
- mdgrech23 6y agoI can think of a good example of this. I worked at a fast food chain in high school. Our goal was 30 seconds from the time a car pulled up and started to order over the loud speaker to the time they pulled away w/ their food. We would rush the customer through the ordering process to the detriment of customer service and often have them pull over to the side to collect their order to cheat the clock.
- mumblemumble 6y agoI used to work in the kitchen at a restaurant that did similar things with time to get food out to tables. I don't know exactly how much beef I wasted due to keeping anticipatory burgers on the grill, even when I had zero open orders in the queue. All I know is, when I die, I'll have to have a very uncomfortable conversation with St Peter while a whole lot of angry cattle are scowling over his shoulders at me. Such a waste.