{"id":13430,"date":"2021-07-19T08:28:46","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T16:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=13430"},"modified":"2021-08-06T05:08:01","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T13:08:01","slug":"metrics-useful-or-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/19\/metrics-useful-or-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"Metrics: Useful or Evil?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I read John Doerr\u2019s Measure What Matters<\/a> and Jerry Muller\u2019s The Tyranny of Metrics<\/a> back-to-back. Needless to say, they did not agree.<\/p>\n

Measure What Matters<\/em> is a peppy business book about the importance of setting clear goals and backing them with metrics. Acronyms and buzzwords abound. These sentences, found on page 186, might go down as the most business book-y passage of all time: \u201cModern recognition is performance-based and horizontal. It crowdsources meritocracy.\u201d The bulk of the book consists of case studies. Doerr argues that, from Bill Gates to Bono, metrics-driven OKRs (objectives and key results) have a life-changing impact.<\/p>\n

The Tyranny of Metrics<\/em>, in contrast, is much more of a downer. It\u2019s a cautionary tale, told not from the manager\u2019s office but from the perspective of the people being managed. Muller argues that a culture of measuring everything is ruining our schools, hospitals, police and politics. When metrics replace judgment, the result is everyone frantically trying to \u201cjuke\u201d the numbers. Surgeons avoid high-risk patients to maintain a higher success rate. Schools teach to the test, rather than educate. Police improve crime stats by reporting serious offenses as milder infractions. Instead of \u201cwhat gets measured, improves,\u201d the slogan of Mulller\u2019s book is, \u201cwhat gets measured, gets gamed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Which Book Was More Convincing?<\/h2>\n
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