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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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