> Numbers are comforting because they are "objective". Yes, your commentary basically nails it IMHO. There's a lot of worship for "results driven" people and

> Numbers are comforting because they are "objective". Yes, your commentary basically nails it IMHO. There's a lot of worship for "results driven" people and approaches, and in some places and times that's needed. The problems come, like you said, when the metrics get punked by folks with selfish motivations. There's another facet to the problem and that's when there's a lack of information and an environment of chaos and change. What one thinks are "the facts" might not be the full story and acting blindly on that basis without knowledge of other unknown but more relevant facts will be MORE harmful than operating on instinct alone. This burns operations folks all the time. They often straddle the line between "results-driven" or "process-driven" approaches. But there's another way that can be more helpful when things are more dynamic and complicated: what I call a "purpose-driven" approach.