Measurement Madness

It's an all-too-familiar tale: a well-meaning manager introduces a performance measurement system to motivate employees, increase accountability, and improve results. At first everything seems to be going fine, but, before long, things appear to be a little strange. Employees start to act as if only what they are measured on matters. The number and length of reports increase, but madness ensues as these pointless reports paint a picture of improvement, while overall results start to drop. Sound familiar? If so, Measurement Madness is the book for you. This book is not another guide on how to implement performance measurement systems; there are already countless books on the subject. However the unintended consequences and dysfunctional behaviours associated with measurement are becoming evermore widespread, as the introduction of performance measurement pervades all organizations and walks of life. Measurement Madness is an engaging read, full of anecdotes so peculiar you'll hardly believe them. Each one highlights a performance measurement initiative that went wrong, explains why and ¿ most importantly ¿ shows you how to avoid making the same mistake yourself. It turns out that performance measurement often fails for quite simple reasons. Managers might choose to measure what is easy to measure rather than what is important; or they might decide to quantify something assuming it won't affect what people do; or they may believe that measurement will give them objective data, whereas they end up triggering even more subjectivity and personal judgment. These avoidable pitfalls, have been distilled and addressed in Measurement Madness , so that you may learn from others' mistakes. "What a refreshing read ¿ instead of another manual on how to design and deploy measurement systems, this book looks at the real issues associated with measurement and how to avoid 'measurement madness'. A must read for anyone involved in improving their organization's measurement approaches." Professor Andy Neely, University of Cambridge; author of The Performance Prism "Measurement drives behaviours in mysterious ways. Human beings seem the one factor that messes up those carefully designed measurement systems. Measurement Madness makes the only sane argument: performance measurement is meant to affect people's behaviours, and functional and dysfunctional behaviours follow certain patterns. If you want your measurement system to work in practice, Gray, Micheli and Pavlov are your guides." Frank Buytendijk, Research VP at Gartner; author of Performance Leadership "Performance measurement is at the very core of management. How can anyone be better if they don't know how good they are? Yet, devising a good performance measurement system requires a profound understanding of how people actually behave when they are measured. This book is very welcome, as it is both wise and practical, full of sensible advice and extremely readable." Professor Nigel Slack, University of Warwick; author of Operations Management "We tend to assume that a performance measurement system is a tool to check how an organization is doing. In practice, its role is mainly to direct behaviours. This book provides excellent illustrations of how and why such behaviours can end up being very positive or absolutely perverse." Anna D'Alessandro, CFO at Westminster City Council "Getting performance measures to work effectively for a business is always a challenge. This book provides great ideas for navigating that tricky path." Mark Baker, Head of Risk and Financial Planning, Pentland Brands