Eleven Metrics Myths

Service and support organizations love their metrics. We discuss them in operations reviews and stand-ups. We hold people accountable to them. Metrics are a really big deal. We’ve observed organizations use metrics to drive counterproductive behavior, to reward activity over quality and value, and to demotivate workers. The astonishing thing about the dysfunctional use of metrics is that leaders believe they’re creating value with metrics when they’re not. Most often, they’re managing their teams the way they were managed as they came up through the ranks—no matter that our business has changed so profoundly in the last twenty-five years. In this e-book, we lay out eleven of the most pernicious myths we see in the industry, and suggest how to combat them. I hope you don’t recognize your organization in these pages, but if you do, we hope we can help you identify and bust your organization’s myths.