We live in the age of competition, where everything is controlled, measured and compared. 

 

• We want everything to be monitored – monitor your investments
• We want to control all that we monitor – Control our teams and children
• We want to measure all that we try to control - Team’s output or children’s academic performance.
• We want to manage everything – Today’s life.

 

Gone are the days when we allowed people to be as they are, work at their pace and allow the world to grow at its own pace.  We want to rush and hurry in everything.  We ended up having annual returns to half yearly returns and now its quarterly returns.  Humans are highly stressed because we tried all the above with people, children, marks, performance, returns, work etc.  We stretch beyond ourselves in these activities. Now we ended up with B.P normal range, Diabetics normal range etc., we are now defining all possible things with every organ in the human body. 

 

Man was at peace and ease when he believed that we as individuals contribute at a micro level on a macro level.  We now want to achieve everything at the macro level and ended up in pieces and diseases.

 

"It is wrong to suppose that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. The most important numbers are unknown and unknowable"

 

This is a profound statement.  We need to measure only if we have to compare. For better management, all we need is to allow people and things to be.  The best results are achieved when we are at peace and relaxed.  Story writers, lyricists, painters, artists understand the importance of not being measured and compared.  Creativity is at its best when at rest.

 

This does not mean we are recluse or lethargic or disinterested.  A gardener manages the garden, whereas in a forest weeds grow uncontrolled.

"If you can't measure it, you can't manage it" - Peter Drucker.

"It is wrong to suppose that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. The most important numbers are unknown and unknowable" - Dr. W. Edward Deming

This is true taking an example of a diabetic patient.  Many of us have experienced how diabetic patients are now tuned to buy hand held meters to measure their sugar levels periodically and accordingly adjust their insulin intake.  This is real example of day to day health management where management absolutely depends on measurement

This is true in the context of examples of correctly assessing human qualities.  There is no accurate device or measurement system to truly assess the human qualities.  Given the fact that even best of the individuals appearing to be good in different system management and organization management fall down by just slipping on their values at one single moment.  Here the most important attribute of human quality is not really possible to be expressed accurately in numbers by just putting a measurement device on a human being.  But still different human being with varying qualities have to be managed by  a supervisor or a boss in a company to give the desired outcome for the day.

According to Dr.  Deming ,  it is most important that top management be quality minded.  In the absence of sincere manifestation of interest at the top, little will happen below. He elaborated more in his book Out of Crisis(1986) , below are points said by him on his view on management :

1. Create constancy of purpose for improving products and services.
2. Adopt the new philosophy.
3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.
4. End the practice of awarding business on price alone; instead, minimize total cost by working with a single supplier.
5. Improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production and service.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Adopt and institute leadership.
8. Drive out fear.
9. Break down barriers between staff areas.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations and targets for the workforce.
11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management.
12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship, and eliminate the annual rating or merit system.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone
14. Put everybody in the company to work accomplishing the transformation

On other hand if we see Peter Druker point of view about management ,  he has given 6 major contribution in defining management . 

1. Nature of Management 2. Management Functions 3. Organisation Structure 4. Federalism 5. Management by Objectives 6. Organizational Changes.

Nature of Management:

Drucker is against bureaucratic management and has emphasised management with creative and innovative characteristics. The basic objective of management is to read towards innovation. The concept of innovation is quite broad. It may include development of new ideas, combining of old and new ideas, adaptation of ideas from other fields or even to act as a catalyst and encouraging others to carry out innovation.

Management by Objectives:Management by objectives (MBO) is regarded as one of the important contributions of Drucker to the discipline of management. He introduced this concept in 1954. MBO has further been modified by Schleh which has been termed as management by results’. MBO includes method of planning, setting standards, performance appraisal, and motivation.

According to Drucker, MBO is not only a technique of management but it is a philosophy of managing. It transforms the basic assumptions of managing from exercising cattalo to self-control. Therefore, in order to practice MBO, the organisation must change itself MBO has become such a popular way of managing that today t is regarded as He most modern management approach. In fact, it has revolutionalised the management process.

In my view both the statements have their own place in the continuous improvement or excellence journey.

 

	"If you can't measure it, you can't manage it" - Peter Drucker.	"It is wrong to suppose that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. The most important numbers are unknown and unknowable" - Dr. W. Edward Deming
Arguments For	Measuring is a definite way of identifying whats working and what is not working. If something can be measured, then definitely it is easier to manage and manage effectively. Managing things that can be measured without measuring definitely hurts chances of success or extent of success. Eg. Losing Weight without stepping on weighing scale regularly	Measuring everything of importance to management is not feasible however it must still be managed – otherwise these           important aspects that cannot be measured are left unattended To put it in another way, we just cannot say what can’t be measured it not worth managing. Eg. ROI on raising children, satisfaction of serving society,       reputation, creativity, relationships
Arguments Against	Focusing on numbers without proper understanding of concepts of variance and other statistical interpretations or using inappropriate measures can lead to inappropriate conclusions. For eg. measuring success of an event by no. of participants who attended alone – may or may not mean anything.	You can’t know whether you are successful unless success is defined. It helps demonstrate progress and qualify success. For eg. employee satisfaction cannot be measured using a           specific index or parameter however in absence of defining some way to measure it you may meet challenges.

 

After detailed investigations, it appears that both gentlemen had strong measurements background and have faith in measurements systems and its importance, they however feel that not everything important can be measured.  

 

Some references - 

http://www.druckerinstitute.com/2013/07/measurement-myopia/ 

https://blog.deming.org/2015/08/myth-if-you-cant-measure-it-you-cant-manage-it/

 

Conclusion: Measurement YES, but ONLY measurement NO. 

 

from my perspective... before moving to answer on is measuring essential lets first know what is being measured... 

 

CTQ:  I beleive quality can be defined as "Quality is what customer perceives". 

If i was to relate this with Dr Edward Deming' s statement... then I would say.. you do not know what is the benchmark for a metric that is to be measured as quality would mean different for different individuals.. Hence, you need to do away with expectation of audience and create some metrics which your product or service is bound to satisfy. Thus it can be said that even u can't measure the end output you can still manage it's behaviour..

 

Is measuring essential.. this is indeed necessary for any activity we do. However one thing that needs to be focussed is... measure and compare with itself. After all... excellence aims at continuous improvement in the work we do and outperform yesterday's results and create history today. 

The point Peter Drucker is referring to is for tangible stuff and it is required to measure all areas/process wherever possible. So they need to be measured and baselined.Only then we will be able to track the progress either positive or negative and know whether the process is under control.

 

Deming is misquoted in this case.What he means to say is that inspite of measuring all that is measurable we might still need to manage the

non-measurable stuff as well.Inshort it would be not good to manage an organization/system just with the figures and the interpretations made out of them

The other quotes by Deming clearly explains his emphasis data measurements and metrics: "In God we trust, all others bring data"

 

 

 

Metrics around processes can be easily found sometimes and can be very difficult to find sometimes. When it comes to an organization there will be a lot of activities that go on for which there are no metrics and I have seen managers go crazy about this measurement mania as well as people who got fooled by randomness.

 

The recent Wells Fargo fiasco tells us that use of operational and financial quantitative targets might lead to disappointing business practices and if organizations pressure employees to meet numbers they will do it any cost and management needs to go beyond “Looking good by the numbers” and give way to developing real process capability in creating value for customers.

Measurement is definitely essential for any well-managed business. Along with it measurement is also essential in our daily life too.

·         Keep Track of Time – watch our favorite television shows on specific times of the day.

·         Keep track of each day – that’s how we remember birthdays of our near ones.

·         We run to school and office to ensure we are not late.

·         Gauging our health on basis of measurements. Eg, Height, weight, pulse, BP etc.

·         We measure our ingredients for cooking any dish.

·         For any long trips, we always keep a tab on the Kms ahead.

·         We measure the amount of oil and petrol our car would need when we are using it on a daily basis. Mileage is a definitely something which everyone calculates.

 

So definitely, if we use measurement so often in our daily life, we can kind of imagine how much the same is used in corporate offices for catering to a good management. There are various reasons why we should be measuring things like performance in Corporate world for ensuring its management is good.

·         If we measure we know where we are and in case of getting improved, we know what would be our target.

·         Communicate effectively and improve visibility

·         It helps to the benchmark of process performance against outside organizations.

·         Measuring process efficiency provides a rational basis for selecting what business process improvements to make first or ensures priority.

·         Measurement helps us in Identifying and correcting problems early.

·         Without measurement we would have encountered problems in deriving at numbers when we have Attrition, Penalty, SLA reporting, Improvement metrics etc in simple corporate world.

·         Measurement also helps us to manage risks in the process.

 

Edward Deming in his statement meant that, there are still things which are unknown and still not measured.

Both gurus are right in their own way! The first quote is easier to explain. It is exhorting managers to try and use measurements in everyday life to take decisions. For e.g. budget variances, productivity, cost of rework, and of course the business metrics like sales growth, profit growth, PAT, employee turnover etc. Measuring each of these gives a handle to see whether we are improving in these areas or worsening or remaining in the same place as before. To give a silly example, one would hardly find a CEO telling his employees that the company has done extremely well this year without comparing the current year's numbers with the previous year. Or a Quality Head claiming that the innovations he introduced, have improved efficiency without providing any numbers to back it.

 

The problem arises when one reads too much into the quote, literally, and avoids managing things where the measurements are difficult. Drucker is not advising us to stop managing things that cannot be measured. He is only telling us to measure (as much as possible) whatever we want to manage!

Deming, on the other hand, is saying that there is a life beyond numbers too! He says that we should not lose sight of key parameters, just because they are difficult to measure. Such parameters are extremely common in the area of human resources. For e.g. how does one measure the mood of an employee? Mood does have a material impact on the quality of deliverables produced in a knowledge economy. Or how does one measure the loyalty quotient of an employee? Such variables are qualitative and managers need to use management / behavioral theories to devise suitable approaches to manage them. Even in public administration, such examples are common. How does a police officer judge the threshold beyond which the crowd might turn violent? It cannot be a simple measure of the size of the crowd, it could be the extent to which their sentiments are aroused on a particular topic. In all such areas, managers need to still take decisions anecdotally or based on conventional wisdom. Gifted managers have a 'nose' for such variables. They can smell it, even if they can't measure it!!

What is your view on this? Is measurement essential for good management? Why? Why Not?

What did Edward W Deming mean by his statement? 

 

 

I personally feel , “if you cannot measure it, you cannot control/ Manage it” holds now , more than ever before. I am saying so as techniques to collect data and techniques to measure most processes through statistic and other experimental methods has evolved manifolds over time. Due to this, It is easier to manage processes and bring about enhancements and control it through the analysis of available data. We have become dependent on data to manage processes and bring about desired results – better than the current measured process matrices which can be attributed as “benchmarks”

Having said that , I feel that the concept of measurement cannot be always limited to a sheet with notable calculations / formulae derived from data and definite yields from them.

I am sure one would agree that millions of years of evolution has given us humans a built in information processing tool that takes signals from the environment and enables us to form decisions, so there’s “Neuro signalling data processor” buried somewhere in our heads.

When one sees anything that has room for improvement, i.e. there is something in it, which is not quite right or satisfactory. That “something” itself is the “data” or data related.

Thus, data in it's wide spectrum covers the information one does not necessarily have to measure physically or literally put on paper.

The "Fact"is data. One observes > measures it against a reference / benchmark / level of satisfaction > Analyze it > work out a resolution/action = Decision which leads to improvement followed by control.
“All done in your head”. It is a natural inbuilt flow

It is understandable that ability to measure is not the only thing that’s important in and of itself. It’s also critical to understand the effect of measuring, and whether you are able to measure a system effectively and constructively.

 

As I was researching on the net on the quote by Dr. Edward W Demings, There seems to be an ambiguity –

John Hunter states in the W.Edwards Intitute Blog that the actual quote was-

“It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth.”

His quote is saying the opposite of what most people think it means when they use the quote without the extra words he used. This is one of the dangers in using quotes without context.

 

According to Hunter, Dr. Deming did very much believe in the value of using data to help improve the management of the organization,And several of the tools he recommended involved using data (Plan- Do- Study- Act Improvement Cycle, Control Charts) 

But he also knew that it wasn’t close to enough. There are many things that cannot be measured and still must be managed, And there are many things that cannot be measured and managers must still make decisions about, Hence; he is also quoted as saying “The most important numbers are unknown and unknowable" 

He probably was putting across  that using data to aid in improvement efforts is extremely valuable. However, it is easy to be led astray while focusing on numbers without a solid understanding of concepts such as: variation, appreciation for a system, the proxy nature of data, theory of knowledge, etc..

 

Another, example that hits through and supports the above mentioned thought is, due to the time lapse in results you can’t measure the productivity of a team until a few years after a release of the software they were building. By teh time you put in the effort to measure the impact, the technology would have changed/ evolved and the software could be close to redundancy. But, the decision of building the software were probably taken, considering the need of the moment, based on factual requirements. 

As I have mentioned herein above, even that instance of taking a decision on facts that are observed is an intricate process of measuring and analyzing data within our head. It is overall a “measured” effort to bring about a desirable change , hence I strongly believe that the quote "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it" is valid at all time and covers it all, anytime...... every time!!

 

Of course if we cannot measure, we won't be able to manage. However, measurement alone isn’t enough to manage because there will be other known/unknown factors which cannot be measured which could be an impact on the management i.e., emotional state of an individual within the process, the ideas that will be used for the betterment of the process/system.

 

However, measurement is essential for a good management because to have a good management on any perspective (Professional/Personal), one should or should be able to measure the position of an individual or a system/process and the destination to be reached by an individual or a system.

 

Edward W Deming meant in his statement that the things that cannot be measured can also be managed. Ex one cannot measure the dedication/determination of an individual but, still a positive influence/motivation on it can give a desired output.

In my opinion, if we have to get better at something we need to measure it unless we are dealing with qualitative information or data. Unless we know how our sales results were last quarter we can't improve our sales in the following quarter. Let's discuss: "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it."

When you think about this quote, it should immediately become apparent how true it is. Because, if you can't measure something, and know the results, you can't possibly get better at it. For example, it's nearly impossible to lose weight without stepping on a scale once in a while to measure your results - if you don't, you have no idea if you are succeeding or not.

Or it's like trying to improve your golf game, but never keeping score, so you don't know if you're actually getting better or not. Makes sense, right?

Now, in business, Drucker's quote is particularly true. If you can't measure every part of your business, you can't manage or grow it.
For example:

• Do you know the number of new website visitors you received in the last 30 days?
• And do you know what percentage of them turned into new paying customers?
• And do you know how the level of satisfaction among your customers has fluctuated over time?
• And do you know the precise average lifetime value of your customers?

There are nearly 50 questions such as these that measure each aspect of your business.

And if you don't know the answers, if you can't measure them, then you can't possibly manage or improve them.

And that's why your sales are too low, profits are too low, employee performance isn't high enough, and you need to work too hard and can't take enough time off.

 

Now about this statement "It is wrong to suppose that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. The most important numbers are unknown and unknowable" - Dr. W. Edward Deming. When Dr. Deming quoted this his intentions were not to exclude data from the measurement as Dr. Deming himself used to include a lot of data in his work, but rather to provide opportunities for the researcher to include extensive data so that he is not arriving at wrong conclusions if the accurate measurements are not made.

For Measurement, I will talk about software measurement here.

 

Software measurement is a challenging but essential component of a healthy and highly capable software engineering culture. Software projects are notorious for running over schedule and budget, yet still having quality problems. Tracking project status is meaningful only when the actual effort and time spent on each task is known and compared against plans. Product stability cannot be gauged unless the rates at which finding and fixing defects are measured. Efficacy of new development processes can be gauged only when measures of current performance is available as a baseline to compare against. Metrics help you better control your software projects and learn more about the way your organization works.

 

Software measurement enables quantification of the current performance of an organization, like schedule, work effort, product size, project status, and quality performance so as to improve future work estimates based on empirical data rather than guesses. Estimates based on such collected data tend to be more realistic and achievable.  Measurement also helps an organization to benchmark current performance with Industry averages and forms the basis for software process improvement plans. Successful organizations link measurement program to organizational goals and process improvement program. They use the process improvement initiative to choose improvements, use the metrics program to track progress towards goals, and use recognition program to motivate and reward desired behaviors.

 

Measurement activities are to be planned carefully because they can take significant effort to implement and the payoff will come over time.

What to Measure:

Successful organizations are driven by goals. Goals are set as a means to improve operational efficiency by performing operations in better ways. It is important to select a small and balanced set of metrics that will help to track progress toward defined goals that includes different aspects of software products, projects, and processes.

 

Goal-Question-Metric (GQM)” is a good technique for selecting appropriate metrics to match the goals set.

• If the goal was “reduce maintenance costs by 50% within one year”, some appropriate questions to answer are: -
• How much is spent on maintenance each month?
• What fraction of our maintenance costs is spent on each application that is supported?
• How much money is spent on adaptive (adapting to a changed environment), perfective (adding enhancements), and corrective (fixing defects) maintenance?

Now identify metrics that will let each question to be answered. Some of these could be data items that can be counted directly, such as the total budget spent on maintenance. Other metrics could be computed from two or more data items measured directly. In the above example collect direct measures like hours spent on each of the three maintenance activity types and the total maintenance cost over a period of time.

 

A typical balanced metrics set should include items relating to product size, product quality, process quality, work effort, project status, and customer satisfaction.

 

We should not see two statements as mutually exclusive statements. Both of them are correct in different contexts.

 

We need to measure things to manage them effectively. Especially we need measurements for trends, analysis and performance reporting. (Peter Drucker)

 

However, if any business rely exclusively on their performance metrics and assume everything hunky dory some surprises are bound to happen.

 

Let us consider an operations where the SLAs are always Green. If the operations head assume that the customer is super happy with the service and do a CSAT- it may throw some surprises. This we call it as watermelon effect. Where SLAs are Green and the CSAT is Red.

 

The other example can be a product sales exceeding the targets for several quarters. If the business assumes too much of customer loyalty towards that product and doesn’t innovate enough- they are in for surprise when one fine day a better product enters the market.

 

What we cannot measure in the above examples (and which is important for a Business) is  Human behaviors, Relationships, Customer Requirements and Expectations. (Deming)

 

So we should have good measurements in place to manage the Known- Knowns. At the same time we need to cognizant of the fact that some unknowns/unstated needs exist in the business which we have to manage even without Metrics.

"If you can't measure it, you can't manage it" - Peter Drucker. 

 

The above quote is absolutely true – in today’s fascinating and competitive world, it’s far more essential to measure organizational metrics (maintain & monitor) and publishing balance scorecard.

 

Without measure -

• How will an organization knows they are competitive and had the edge over others?
• How will an individual know his/her strength & weakness?
• How will someone know pain area of their processes or business?

 

Here is an example of “how important is to measure”:

Imagine that you are a high school student and you appear for term / all other examinations. However, the class teacher had a tendency of not revealing (not measured) the examination scores. Since the student never knew their scores – they might not be focused (missing pain area) on the subject they are weak. On their final examination to their surprise, they failed in a subject that they believe it’s easier for them. That’s the power of measure.

 

Similarly relate the above scenario to your business, processes etc. In an organization, it’s vital to measure, maintain and monitor relevant metrics without which it’s too difficult to manage your clients and eventually your business.

 

"It is wrong to suppose that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. The most important numbers are unknown and unknowable" - Dr. W. Edward Deming

 

Thanks to the internet, there were lots of conflicting thoughts on the above the quote. When examine, I wonder how come a statistician like Deming says it’s wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure, you can’t manage it. I think this could be due to the fact that there are scenarios where it’s too difficult to measure at a granular level but can be measured at a high level and manage. The second sentence is little tricky when most important numbers are unknown and unknowable – to me, why should one worry about measuring and managing it when numbers are unknown.

 

Rasheed Ahamed

Igniting Minds 95

Peter Drucker

"    If you can't measure it, you can't manage it"
1. You have a meeting tomorrow.

2. You have a meeting tomorrow at 3:00 PM at ABC Company located at XYZ location.

Looking at above two statements, one will feel more comfortable to attend the meeting based on statement no.2.

 

What peter Drucket meant was same thing, you can’t know whether you are heading the right path unless you have target. That target should be tracked and measured at regular intervals for gap analysis. Without firm objectives/target you are always reliant on your gut feeling .

Measuring data helps in making decision with confidence.

It helps in continual improvement, setting new targets each time.

 

        Dr. W. Edward Deming

        1. “It is wrong to suppose that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. The most important numbers are unknown and unknowable” - Dr. W. Edward Deming

       Before I discuss about this quote, let us see another quote from Dr W.Edward Deming.

      2. “In God we trust; all others bring data.”

    Both these quotes are from Dr. Deming. And it looks like both are contradictory.

   It is very important to know in what context Dr Deming quoted “It is wrong to suppose that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it.  The most important numbers are unknown and unknowable” - Dr. W. Edward Deming

There are certain things in industries that cannot be measured, all those tangible things like

1. Companies brand value
2. What benefits you will get if an employee goes for training
3. How much savings can be done if we implement 5S at our workplace
4. Benefits of a visual management process
5. How much did a customer like your product?
6. Benefits of letting employees play games/ have a nap during their lunch hour
7. Qualitative experience of an employee.

Dr. Deming was never against gathering data and making improvements based on that data.

Though we don’t know how to measure some things, a Manager has to manage those activities also.

Managers can measure factors affecting that thing. If that factor was not impacting we can always change our metrics and measure something else that gives proper reflection.

For small improvements, it is not advisable to waste time in measuring and collecting data. Sometimes gathering data becomes more expensive than actual benefit that we get from it.

In summary, we should be able to measure data and create a culture of decision making based on data. This will help us in creating benchmark year on year and lead to continual improvement.

 

 

 

My statement goes like this - “You can’t manage what you can’t measure,”

Considered example as Supply chain Mgt or Logistics

The major trends in business right now — low-cost, outsourcing, customization, globalization and more — all create tremendous complexities in a supply chain.

In most cases, however, companies have not changed how they manage this critical part of the business.
Many still lag when it comes to measuring how well they are doing, and balancing the trade-offs involved in keeping service levels high and costs low.
Many SCM metrics, like inventory turnover, are already built into a typical accounting system. But some of the more sophisticated benchmarks, including measuring the level of customer satisfaction, Service level, take some work to develop. 

Companies are beginning to realize that they need end-to-end visibility in their supply chain management efforts. Companies need to anticipate demand, since it takes time to respond to demand-side changes. They’re learning, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement.”

Conclusion: “Every company should have metrics that track performance & manage the performance better.

“How do you know whether you would lose business or gain business “ – Without proper metrics.

Dr. Deming, the father of Quality (my favorite) did very much believe in the value of using data to help improve the management of the organization. In fact several of the tools like PDSA, Control charts etc. which he recommended are involved using data. He stated one of the seven deadly diseases of management was Running a company on visible figures alone.

 

The important points which he made are:  

1. you can't measure everything of importance to management.  
2. you must still manage those important things.

Taiichi Ohno (father of TPS) also mentioned - “Data are of course important in manufacturing, but I place the greatest emphasis on facts.”

 

Let's look into this in detail:

 

Irrespective of the industry (manufacturing or BPO or technology etc..) – not all the factors which are creating an impact on the “Y” are quantitative.

There are Y’s which is very important for any organization.

1. Speed

2. Accuracy

3. Cost

Eg. 1. Speed:

 

The different causes which will affect the speed are Availability of inputs on time, Capacity utilization, Resource required vs Actual. If you look at all these are quantitative. These are data-driven. But if you look at other causes like skill set of the people, the temperament of the people are more subjective which is not data-driven and you can’t measure. These causes may create a big impact on speed. Because you can’t measure, you should not leave this.

 

Eg. 2. Accuracy:

 

Similarly, if you look at Accuracy. Some of the causes like a feedback mechanism, quality of the process manual – these are not data-driven and subjective to the extent. You can’t measure this. But these will have a significant impact on your accuracy.

 

My point is:

 

Measurement is very important for any organization to see whether they are going in right direction, they are in the improving trend, are they sustaining etc., But in order to meet this end objective, whatever is the factor you are targeting for improvement (which creates significant impact on your end objective) should not be necessarily the measurable one. Whatever should be measurable, that need to be tracked on a regular basis. Tracking on the measurable factor will help us to put a right control in place for improvement. Whatever factor which is nonmeasurable, keep a close monitor on that for improvement.

This reminds me of the ad (that I'm going to mutilate a bit) = There are something things in life that can't be measured. For everything else, Drucker is probably right. So don't measure everything that can be measured. Rather, measure what makes sense to measure. From multiple perspectives.

 

Very often, we see that people put measures around, just for the sake of measuring. Not everything can be measured. Many measures that I've seen measure activity, instead of results. They are also very discouraging at times. Especially when metrics measure how often the ball was dropped, but never how long the contestant ran, before dropping the ball!

My view on measurements is that there must be a balance. In our desperate attempt to show progress, we introduce metrics that might actually slow us down and make us lose focus from more impact full stuff.

 

Both Drucker and Deming were right. Let us never forget to measure for impact. And at the same time, learn to value what can't (be measured).

In my view these are very critical to understand how we are perform as a team. 

It is all the tools which are powerful to understand the performance and helps us to know  the gaps in performance.

Our operational strategy as to come down as KPIs and it is important for any process to achieve or exceed the KPI. KPI is known as key performance indicators. 

These dashboards consists of different items pertaining to Quality and shared with management and operational teams. It drives performance and healthy competition. 

 

My understanding is both Measurable (Quantitative) and Immeasurable (Qualitative) data need to be understood and given equal weight for effective management. The qualitative factors would indirectly affect the quantitative measures.

It would not be a good idea only to rely on measurable Data to Manage because the circumstances, conditions, method, and assumptions used for the measurement would have a great impact on the measured value. A data set obtained from incorrect measurement would really harm the inference.
In some cases, there could be a significant time gap before we can obtain substantial quantitative data to analyze and make decisions. For example, Regional cultural impact on a new business. It might be too late to revive a business if we wait for Quarter to quarter Business data to formulate a strategy.  Culture is immeasurable, but we still need to understand and consider the possible impact it could have on the business growth.

In my view, what Edward W Deming would have meant by his statement is sometimes we would need to let go of numbers and data and trust the “gut feelings”. One needs to exercise caution in accepting any measured data and raise questions regarding the measurement techniques.

Today we mostly say that what is not measurable can't be managed. But a lot of things are present in management like compliance, branding, technology, staff motivation, customer feedback etc which needs to be managed and improved but which can't be measured.

 

There's also another side to this please..we can also say that numbers are only indicators and tell us where to look and what to look for but we can't rely on it completely to know the status of concerned parameter. 

 

This is what Deming wants to tell.he is not asking us to abandon all performance metrics. But he wants us to tell that there are also few parameters which we can't measure but we need to look into it.

why - Measuring and tracking progress is commonplace within businesses large and small. Growing businesses need close and careful management, and measurement systems are an important way of monitoring progress by giving information about what’s happening now and providing a framework for how you can improve.Hence measurement plays an important role for good management.

 

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why not- Yes its important to run a improvement process basis the fact and data so that it will help in doing the remediation in specific manner. however there are few things which can't be measured but improvement can surely be done if we apply different techniques to resolve it.So effective measurement is essential for good management however only for which we have resources available to measure it.for others for which we don't have resources to measure we work on different strategy to get the effective results.I think also that it’s wrong to interpret Deming as warning against being driven by measurements.there are definitely other options available or ca be found to get good management with out measurements.

 

I think data in its wide spectrum covers the information you do not necessarily have to measure physically or literally put it on the paper.The fact is “data’. You are seeing it, you measure it in your head against a reference, also in your head,and then you analyse it. Upon your analysis you workout s solution and the outcomes is the decision which is the improvement followed by control.

We need to manage systems even though we cannot collect data that would be extremely valuable if it were knowable and available.It is True, you cannot measure something that does not exist. Now try again to suggest something which exists that cannot be measured. Even if indirectly there are legitimate proxies to measure intangible things like love, loyalty, fright, pain.

 

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What did Edward W Deming mean by his statement?

 

Dr. Deming did very much believe in the value of using data to help improve the management of the organization. But he also knew that it wasn’t close to enough. There are many things that cannot be measured and still must be managed. And there are many things that cannot be measured and managers must still make decisions about it.

Measurement vs Management:

 

Measurement is without any doubt an essential part of identifying areas that need improvement. A business's regular health check remains dependent mostly on balance scorecard data. When Peter Drucker imposes stress on measurement, he highlights the aspect of setting up actionable items supported by data. Without a robust measurement and therefore governance model in place, a business is bound to be driven just by assumptions & human instincts which are highly susceptible to failure due to their inherent nature of bias. Therefore, for a business to excel, it is essential to know how it is performing today against measurable performance indicators and based on data, decision needs to be made on improving areas of concerns.

 

The above stands apt as long as a Business just thinks about the material aspect.

 

However, customer experience is not just about what he gets but also about how he feels about 'what & how' he gets. An organization, apart from it's financial performance, is also a way of improving people's lives, enhancing the social experience around them. It has an extent of spirituality around it which cannot me measured.

 

When Deming says "the most important numbers are unknown and unknowable", in my view, he highlights the aspect of Wholistic enhanced experience that a business should aim to deliver. When a leader plans to improve e.g. Employee Satisfaction, he may put some measurable attributes like working hour flexibility, additional benefits, or say 'free meal', however the aspect of how an employee feels about being valued, or the kind of working relationships people share in the organization cannot be measured. These, 'unknowable' aspects impact the target metric greatly though. And these aspects of customer experience cannot be measured but can definitely be managed &  improved. That's the reason, an organization puts it's mission on top and drills down it into vision & objectives: material ways to achieve the ultimate purpose.

 

My take is- a business should make every effort to take decisions based on data driven inputs but at the same time, must keep space for human instincts to play, the spirituality around the company mission & values to take calls.

 

According to me measurement is important. It is very difficult to manage any abstract thing. It is necessary to define target or expected outcome. If Outcomes are defined then measurement is required to deliver it. I also believe everything can be measured, maybe we must define the parameters and at the time of defining parameters we should think nonlinear.