Jerry Z. Muller, The Tyranny of Metrics
The Tyranny of Metrics is written by History Professor Jerry Z. Muller.
In the book, Muller explores the often overlooked pitfalls that result from focussing too narrowly on performance metrics.
Muller calls the increasing pressure to measure, publicise and reward performance, “metric fixation”.
Despite its intuitive allure, evidence shows that “metric fixation” causes a number of unintended consequences, many of which run counter to the goals of the metric itself.
Some examples:
Medicine: Surgeons assessed on success rates are less likely to take on challenging operations.
Crime: Police assessed on their arrest numbers, focus on tackling smaller crimes.
Education: Teachers assessed on students’ test scores, deprioritise the broader aims of education.
After reviewing these case studies, along with examples from politics, business and the military, Muller isolates the common downfalls of metric fixation.
Here are six of the biggest.
Goal displacement: When performance is judged by a few measures, people focus on satisfying those measures at the expense of other, less quantifiable, goals.
Short-termism: Measured performance encourages the imperious immediacy of interests. Or to put it another way, metrics encourage the advancement of short-term goals at the expense of long-range considerations.
Measurement costs: Metrics do not simply exist. It takes employee time to measure, process and compile the data. And the more metrics you measure, the greater the costs you incur.
Diminishing utility: Newly introduced metrics often immediately uncover areas of underperformance. Whilst the cost of collecting and processing the data continues, the usefulness of the it declines after the primary benefit has already been harvested.
Discouraging innovation: When people are judged by performance metrics, they are incentivised to do what the metrics measure, and what the metrics measure will always be an established goal. This impedes innovation, which inherently means doing something that is not yet established.
Discouraging cooperation: Rewarding individuals for their performance diminishes the sense of a common purpose. In fact, quantifiable metrics at the individual level promotes competition rather than cooperation.
The book features many more case studies from many more fields.
Highly recommended.
Pick up your copy here.