It is difficult to improve what we can’t measure.
Whether it is losing weight, improving customer satisfaction, measuring employee productivity, or creating standards for company performance, it is critical that the right metrics be employed at the right time.
How else can we ever assess that we got better?
The ‘feel good’ factor carries little weight without the right measurement.
Imagine the mutiny I would have on my hands if I told my students that they did a ‘good job’ on their exams, without a score to create a benchmark for relative performance. The key is to use common sense, and qualitative insight, in the interpretation of the numbers. The challenge? Measure the right thing. Not the most convenient.
Maybe that’s why I love the old adage — In God I trust, all others bring data!
About Hemant Rustogi