Metrics: Right or Left Brain Activity?

I was reviewing one of my favorite books, Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future and thinking about metrics and whether they are a right brain or left brain activity.

The initial response, of course, is that metrics are a numbers-based, quanitification-oriented activity that must be a left brain function. These are logical, step-by-step activities if they are taken at face value. Who are the primary metricians in a corporation? The accountants - who, by definition are left-brainers.

The reason Daniel Pink got me thinking about this is that when properly deployed, metrics are not about measuring routine activities, but rather they are about conceptualization, systems-level thinking and big-picture approaches to problem solving in business.

Metrics are borne of big ideas. Sam Walton is well known for saying "you get what you measure." The question about "what do you want to get" in a company is typically a board level/executive level function that includes setting the company's vision and mission, clarifying its values and setting its goals.

Metrics are how you go about achieving the vision, mission, values and goals. There is a lot of creativity involved in translating those high level objectives into specific, measurable actions that are carried out by each and every member of the organization. When you have a goal such as "Provide world class customer service." there is not much for your staff to dig their teeth into in how they carry out their day-to-day activities.

Hermes is the greek figure who served as the messenger of the gods. His job was to translate the deities' messages into a form that was understood by the mortals. The job of creating organizational metrics is no less challenging than this. Abstract concepts such as "world class customer service" consist of many critical tasks and projects that must be carried out, each of which has measurable outcomes. By focusing on these measurable outcomes we empower teams to use their creativity and to gain ownership in how the outcomes are achieved, while creating a crystal-clear description of what specifically needs to happen.

After all this has happened, it falls to someone to collect, organize and present the metrics data. And "yes", I suppose this is a left-brain activity, but this collection and presentation of data is not what metrics is about any more than cleaning paint brushes is what an artist does when he is creating a painting. Cleaning the brushes is an integral part of the process, but comes well after the creativity has occurred.

Metrics: Focus on the Future or the Past?

Are Metrics Based in the Future or the Past?

 When you hear the word “metrics” what do you think of?  Measurement of results and outcomes of a process?  Or do you think of metrics tied to strategic initiatives with future outcomes? 

 Your perception of metrics as future or past based will have a lot to do with how you use metrics and what you can get out of them. 

 A good example of this distinction is the way that W. Edwards Deming approached quality management.  One of Deming’s “Fourteen Points for Management” as described in his book Out of the Crisis (p. 23-24), was that companies need to “cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.  Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.”   Thus, Deming’s approach was not to use metrics in the past (dependence on inspection), but rather in the future (building quality into the product in the first place.)

 Metrics is at its most powerful when it is coupled with the strategic planning process.  Ultimately it becomes cyclical so that it drives process in the beginning of a change and then measures results as they become available.  Organizations then practice continuous process improvement by taking the resulting metrics into account when fine tuning their strategic plans, until ultimately the desired results are achieved.