4 ms·

I agree with everything you say. And bad numbers are awful. At some point of organizational size, executives can’t stay on top of everything and make good dec

I agree with everything you say. And bad numbers are awful. At some point of organizational size, executives can’t stay on top of everything and make good decisions without quantitative metrics. That doesn’t mean making everyone full time metric gatherers. It doesn’t mean looking at the data uncritically. It doesn’t mean ignoring what you can’t measure. It does mean smartly measuring what you can.

kqr 4y ago
The alternative solution is that executives don't make decisions, only coordinate between the people on the ground who have the necessary context to make decisions.
- mathattack 4y ago
  That works for 80% of the problems, and something that should be done. Some problems require optimizing for the whole rather than individual teams or departments. How do you allocate capital between business units if you aren’t measuring ROI? How do you decide what practices work best if you’re not measuring how people work and what they’re doing?
  - kqr 4y ago
    Not all functions are best evaluated through ROI, but if you're an executive whose hammer is ROI you'll start to look at everything as a liability. Free markets are generally better at allocating capital than central control. It's also more flexible in adapting to different measures of success. Standardising work is especially important that it's done by the participants in said work, and not dictated from above. That can be done democratically.
    - mathattack 4y ago
      Agree. Very few execs are good enough to base capital allocation decisions on gut feel alone though. “It feels like we are short on internal audit” versus “a firm our size should be doing these 10 audits per year. An audit takes $y and if we don’t do it, the consequences are measurable with Y….”
      - kqr 4y ago
        You keep saying you agree with me that executives should not make this type of decision and then you somehow circle back to how we can enable executives to make that type of decision. That's the opposite of what I'm saying! I'm not sure I understand what's going on there.
        mathattack 4y ago
        I’m saying both. I agree that not every call is an ROI decision, but execs need some data beyond feel for most capital allocation decisions.

kqr 4y ago

The alternative solution is that executives don't make decisions, only coordinate between the people on the ground who have the necessary context to make decisions.

mathattack 4y ago
That works for 80% of the problems, and something that should be done. Some problems require optimizing for the whole rather than individual teams or departments. How do you allocate capital between business units if you aren’t measuring ROI? How do you decide what practices work best if you’re not measuring how people work and what they’re doing?
- kqr 4y ago
  Not all functions are best evaluated through ROI, but if you're an executive whose hammer is ROI you'll start to look at everything as a liability. Free markets are generally better at allocating capital than central control. It's also more flexible in adapting to different measures of success. Standardising work is especially important that it's done by the participants in said work, and not dictated from above. That can be done democratically.
  - mathattack 4y ago
    Agree. Very few execs are good enough to base capital allocation decisions on gut feel alone though. “It feels like we are short on internal audit” versus “a firm our size should be doing these 10 audits per year. An audit takes $y and if we don’t do it, the consequences are measurable with Y….”
    - kqr 4y ago
      You keep saying you agree with me that executives should not make this type of decision and then you somehow circle back to how we can enable executives to make that type of decision. That's the opposite of what I'm saying! I'm not sure I understand what's going on there.
      - mathattack 4y ago
        I’m saying both. I agree that not every call is an ROI decision, but execs need some data beyond feel for most capital allocation decisions.