# Don't and Do Measure What Matters By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2024-04-05 Today's organizations are trapped within the measurement paradigm where ideas like "measure what matters" and "Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)" reign supreme. This measurement obsession limits one's focus to the productivity and efficiency of things that can be measured. For all the other things that are hard to measure, organizations either ignore them or attempt to convince a river to change its direction by putting it on a performance improvement plan. So, it's interesting to think about what an organization would look like in a post-measurement world. In many ways, it's challenging to contemplate, as one could argue that communication requires some form of measurement or the quantification of the information to compare objects or events. For example, if someone says hello to me, I need to quantify the vibrations, timing, and frequency and compare it to other words I know to see which one it is closest to. This is an act of measurement. So, we cannot escape measurement at the information processing and biomechanical level without ceasing to exist as we currently understand it. Simply put, measurement seems required to understand the world and ourselves. However, it does not mean one needs to measure everything. One ignores an infinite number of things that could be measured every millisecond. Thus, the post-measurement world is not about the lack of measurement but about acknowledging the value of choosing not to measure something. Someone who embodies the post-measurement paradigm considers the mantra "don't measure what matters" an equivalently valuable strategy as "do measure what matters." Intuitively, humans already do this, but we often need help to see it. Does one actively measure one's love for one's partner? In all likelihood, one does not. It should not be incrementally measured, even though love matters. However, as one reads this, one is likely thinking of ways where this is not true and how one could measure love. This is the seduction of measurement. Resist the temptation. Not measuring love but knowing its existence allows one to more fully experience the world of reality versus the world of illusions. Love measured transforms it into the artificial language of mathematics, which is excellent for feats of science and engineering but often causes one to miss the expression of the present. Within organizations, stop trying to measure things that benefit from not being measured. Does being a great place to work matter? Yes. Does measuring "greatness" make a place better to work at? No, it's just a stunt. These things still matter, but only if you don't attempt to measure them as one measures widgets per hour. Instead of measuring "greatness," one should choose to find it as one chooses to find love. #### Related Items [[Measurement]] [[Organization]] [[Love]] [[Work]] [[Metrics]] [[Thinking]] [[Paradigms]]