“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”
How many people have heard this quote? Most people have heard it expounded many times and attribute it to W. Edwards Deming, the 20th century professor and statistician best known for his work on systems thinking and revolutionizing post-war Japanese productivity.
Interestingly enough, W. Edwards Deming said it but it is really a misattribution. The full quote is:
“It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it — a costly myth.”
There are many things in business and life that we need to manage even though we can’t precisely measure them.
Would you agree? Here are some example that come to my mind.
- How do you measure your love for your children or significant other?
- How do you measure your love for anything?
- How do you measure the quality of your relationships?
- How do you measure your character?
Because we cannot measure them precisely or exactly, does this mean that we do not measure them at all? Can we not manage them?
Do we look for ways to give them attention and focus in our lives so that they become stronger, deeper, and more significant?
Here’s a big question I’m often asked in organizations:
How do we measure leadership effectiveness?
I’m asking these questions because I want to challenge you to think about measurement in a different way.
I’m not avoiding the question and I’m not avoiding the measurement that needs to take place when we’re talking about effective leadership. But I am saying that there are quantitative ways to measure and there are qualitative ways to measure and both can be valid and useful.
What I am proposing is that we start measuring leadership. Not the effects of leadership. Not the results of leadership. Not the ROI of leadership, although those are all useful measures and important.
I suggest that we actually measure, as best we can, the effectiveness of leadership. Both objectively and subjectively.
I suggest this because the subjective measurement of effective leadership is reliable and highly correlated to business performance at a coefficient of 0.61. This is a reseachers’ dream!
Being able to measure how and where a leader is effective, and how and when he or she is not effective provides a rich source of information that can be applied to leadership development and greatly impact business results.
This is one of the most effective methods any leader can pursue to make an immediate and powerful impact on the bottom line business results of their organization.
Yes it is challenging, but isn’t anything that is truly worthwhile?
How can appropriate and informative measurement be done? Fortunately, scientists have done a lot of studies and crafted effective tools most any organization can use.
Let me know what you think. I’d love to hear from you. If you’d like to have a call to sort out a method to this process let me know.