Pressure to meet a target value changes the system or the data

Good managers attempt to increase effectiveness toward a desired goal, and they usually use some form of data to determine the progress they are making to that end. As common as this practice is, it nonetheless invites metric fixation. Metric fixation is the persistent belief that the most effective means of achieving an objective is attaching rewards and penalties to publicly visible data-driven numerical indicators of comparative performance. In the process, “the nature of work is transformed in ways that are often pernicious.”[1]

This is because, when people are pressured to meet a target value there are three ways they can proceed:

  1. They can work to improve the system.
  2. They can distort the system.
  3. Or they can distort the data.[2]

Improving the system is the most effective (to say nothing of most ethical) means of responding, but this is a very difficult thing to achieve for people who do not have sufficient authority and power to bring about the needed change, even if they are able to understand the system itself:

Before one can improve any system one must listen to the voice of the system (the voice of the process). Then one must understand how the inputs affect the outputs of the system. Finally, one must be able to change the inputs (and possibly the system) in order to achieve the desired results. This will require sustained effort, constancy of purpose, and an environment where continual improvement is the operating philosophy.[3]

#systems-thinking #organizations #leadership #management

See also:

  1. Source: The Tyranny of Metrics – Muller (2018), ch. 1. ↩︎

  2. Source: Understanding Variation – Wheeler (1993)], ch. 2, § “Comparisons to Specifications,” 20-21. ↩︎

  3. Ibid. ↩︎