What gets measured gets done.

It’s an old saying and it’s a good one. state, “What gets measured gets done, but you need the right measures to get the right things done.” Steven J Thomas says that that this raises an important question: What are the right measures?

He says that what should be measured is different for every company. Select and use measures to influence behavior. For example, measuring profitability will positively influence behavior he says. Really? I know of a firm that measured and displayed profitability and it lead to completely negative behaviour.

This was because the employees deemed the shareholders greedy and demanded a greater share of the profits.  So, I’d agree with Thomas on his next statement – It is important to identify what you want to change in the work process, then carefully put measures into place that will affect the selected behavior in the right direction. The key word in this last statement is carefully. You can easily introduce problems if you use the wrong measures!!