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Gary Wong
Consultant, Canada
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Obsession with Quantifying Human Performance
In his book Tyranny of Metrics (2018), Jerry Muller describes the damage our obsession with metrics is causing. Today, a lot of organizations of all kinds are ruled by the belief that the path to success is quantifying the results, and dividing up the rewards based on the numbers.
 But in our zeal to instill the evaluation process with scientific rigour, we’ve gone from measuring performance to fixating on measuring itself.
The result is a tyranny of metrics that threatens the quality of our lives and our institutions.
Pressure encourages “gaming the stats” or “teaching to the test.” Muller explains:
- Why paying for measured performance doesn't work,
- Why surgical scorecards may increase deaths, and
- When transparency can be the enemy of performance.
On the other hand, metrics can be beneficial when used to complement rather than replace judgment based on personal relationships and experiences.
⇒ What are your experiences with the usefulness of quantifying human performance?
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Dr. Alan Williams
Professor, Thailand
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How Human Performance Measurement Can Work
My long-term experience is that step 1 is taking t (...)
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Norman Dragt
Netherlands
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Quantifying Works if You Know How
Jerry Muller is completely right when he states th (...)
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Christopher St. Cyr
Analyst, United States
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The Golden Spike
Years ago, the US government aspired to build a tr (...)
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MUNI DAVE
Business Consultant, India
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Obsession with Metrics
Yes. An obsession with metrics is not useful. But (...)
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Dr. Alan Williams
Professor, Thailand
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Problem with Performance Metrics
Performance metrics can be way too complicated and (...)
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Jaap de Jonge
Editor, Netherlands
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Transcontinental Railway Disconnect Due to Wrong Metrics
@Christopher St. Cyr: Nice anecdote. Could you or (...)
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Borje Vickberg
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Obsession with Metrics
The obsession with metrics forces teachers to prod (...)
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Milan Grkovic
Strategy Consultant, Croatia
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Metrics is a Prerequisite for Success
Metrics is unavoidable because it is practically i (...)
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Delfor Ibarra
Consultant, Argentina
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Labor Performance Assessment (Valoración de Desempeño Laboral)
The samples on which Statistic science weighs the (...)
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Gabi Levin
Israel
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Don’t forget the Management Responsibility when Measuring Employee Performance
Of course metrics are essential, of course calibra (...)
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Mallika T R
Manager, India
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Quantifying Employee Performance
Every single organisation with an HR department wo (...)
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Norman Dragt
Netherlands
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Formative or Normative Metrics
@Milan Grkovic: What you are addressing here Milan (...)
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Doug Marriner
HR Consultant
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Assessing OGSM's
Now retired, my experience in several very large o (...)
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David Stehlik
Professor, United States
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Reference for Railroads Passing Each Other
@Jaap de Jonge: "One year into the Civil War, a R (...)
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Dr. Alan Williams
Professor, Thailand
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HR Dept., Insist on Quantifying Performance?
@Mallika T R: In what country is this the norm (HR (...)
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FREDDY VILLAVICENCIO
Business Consultant, Venezuela
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All That Obsesses You is Becoming a Trouble
Performance metrics are needed to have a compariso (...)
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eduardo oliva
Professor, Mexico
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Performance Measurement of Managers is a Must
Organizations grow and excel through the achieveme (...)
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Gabi Levin
Israel
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Metrics are Essential for Managers as Well
Hi Eduardo,
Your point about assessing managers i (...)
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Maurice Hogarth
Consultant, United Kingdom
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Quantities versus Qualities in Human Performance
I believe that quantities i.e. measurability, are (...)
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Jaap de Jonge
Editor, Netherlands
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Measuring or Quantifying the Efficiency of Knowledge Workers and/or Innovators
Of course it depends on the situation, but overall (...)
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Gabi Levin
Israel
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Metrics in the Innovative Realm
I agree that metrics in an innovative realm are mo (...)
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Gary Wong
Consultant, Canada
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Working in the Cynefin Complex Domain
@Gabi Levin: The innovation realm you described is (...)
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Norman Dragt
Netherlands
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Managers Needed that are Creative with Benchmarks
In essence as @Gary Wong and @Jaap de Jonge state, (...)
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eduardo oliva
Professor, Mexico
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Cyclic Assessments Needed
Some 20 years ago, when applying root-cause analys (...)
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Gary Wong
Consultant, Canada
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Distributed Ethnography as Cyclic Assessment
@Eduardo oliva: Actually there is one approach tha (...)
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Norman Dragt
Netherlands
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A Growth Mindset to Fight Problems with Network Actions and Impacts
@Eduardo oliva: In away what you state is that to (...)
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eduardo oliva
Professor, Mexico
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Progress Evaluation is Situational
@Milan Grkovic: A good manager always has some mea (...)
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FREDDY VILLAVICENCIO
Business Consultant, Venezuela
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Traditional Structures Plays Against Managers
@Jaap de Jonge: I am pretty much agreeing with Jaa (...)
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Dr. Alan Williams
Professor, Thailand
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Traditional Structure Plays Against Managers
I agree managers (including HR managers) must get (...)
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Gabi Levin
Israel
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Traditional Structure not Playing Against Managers
This statement can easily be mistaken - I don't th (...)
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Gary Wong
Consultant, Canada
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Questions when Quantifying or Measuring Human Performance
Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences and i (...)
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FREDDY VILLAVICENCIO
Business Consultant, Venezuela
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Traditional Structures Plays Against Managers
@Gabi Levin: I love this part "So what is playing (...)
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Norman Dragt
Netherlands
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Start with Question #7 when Considering Using Metrics
@Gary Wong: I recommend every time you come up wi (...)
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eduardo oliva
Professor, Mexico
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Distributed Ethnography as Cyclic Assessment
I would very much appreciate one of your recent pa (...)
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Gary Wong
Consultant, Canada
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Distributed Ethnography Projects
@Eduardo oliva: “Ethnography” seeks to systematica (...)
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FREDDY VILLAVICENCIO
Business Consultant, Venezuela
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Human Talent Cannot Be Harmonized to Create a Metric Rule
@Gary Wong: From my point of view it is hard to d (...)
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Gary Wong
Consultant, Canada
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Shift the Paradigm
@FREDDY VILLAVICENCIO: What you are lamenting is t (...)
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Melchiorre Calabrese
Business Consultant, Italy
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Quantifying Performance
Guiding an organization without easuring the perfo (...)
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eduardo oliva
Professor, Mexico
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Quantifying Human Performance
Simply quantifying performance is fine. An obsessi (...)
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Mallika T R
Manager, India
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Quantifying Performance
@Dr. Alan Williams: Companies from IT and real est (...)
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Melchiorre Calabrese
Business Consultant, Italy
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Quantifying Human Performance
@eduardo oliva: "Obsession" is when the costs of m (...)
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