Thread by @anthilemoon

"What gets measured, gets managed" is one of the biggest fallacies in management circles — a dangerous trope people keep on repeating without ever really thinking about it... 🧵

Original quote from the 1956 paper: "Quantitative measures of performance are tools, and are undoubtedly useful. But research indicates that indiscriminate use and undue confidence and reliance in them result from insufficient knowledge of the full effects and consequences."

Which journalist Simon Caulkin summarized as: "What gets measured gets managed — even when it's pointless to measure and manage it, and even if it harms the purpose of the organisation to do so."

Somehow, a long game of telephone resulted in a truncated version of the idea, where the most important part about being careful with measurement was forgotten.

The funniest thing is that the original quote is often attributed to Peter Drucker, who *never* said such thing... And would roll over in his grave knowing people routinely use his name next to this quote.

Original quote from Drucker: "Because knowledge work cannot be measured the way manual work can, one cannot tell a knowledge worker in a few simple words whether he is doing the right job and how well he is doing it.”

Quite the opposite, right?

The point is: we should stop glorifying measurement for the sake of measurement.

Bonus: see Goodhart's law (formulated by Marilyn Strathern and not him because yes we love to misattribute quotes): "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."

Links to original quotes + strategies to avoid the measurement fallacy 👇

nesslabs.com/what-gets-meas…