A Wobbly Waterfall
The world has become consumed with measurement. Most everyone I know has a smart watch, smart ring, pedometer, or something else that measures their bodily functions. High-growth organizations exemplify that trend. At their best, metrics try to answer some basic questions that might help management adjust and optimize their work. These break into two classes […]
Less is More in Strategy
Prefer to watch rather than read? Here’s a short 6-minute video. Gardening Sometime early in the pandemic I decided I wanted to have a flower garden. I began planting things. Some of them grew well, some not. Eventually, it became a colorful garden. But soon, my pretty blooms got straggly, and stopped flowering. I was […]
Measurement Madness
There is a well-known saying that “what gets measured gets managed”. Depending on your source, it was first said by either physicist Lord kelvin, or Peter Drucker. It’s generally true. After all, if you plan to run a marathon, you start by finding out what distance you can run right now. That’s the starting point. […]
Measure What Matters and Motivates
Who should you write up, who should you retain, and who should you groom for promotion? Growing companies eventually discover that they need a way to make more than just black and white distinctions between employees who are doing their job and those who should be fired for incompetence, insubordination or simple laziness. They need […]
Measure What Matters
People are measuring lots of things nowadays, and in fact there is a growing industry of devices and software for personal measurement. But despite the onslaught of technology to measure ourselves, we may not be thoughtful enough about which measurements really matter to achieving our personal and business goals. Choosing which measurements are meaningful can […]