# Schrödinger Metrics By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2023-05-24 Most managers and organizations are frenemies with metrics - they just don't know it. If asked, most organizations will highlight the importance of metrics. Managers will say you can't manage what you can't measure. However, if you spend time within these organizations, you see how few metrics exist. Those that do exist are often underdeveloped and do not capture the essential features of the organization. What gives? Well, it's hard to come up with good metrics. It takes a lot of thinking, understanding, and game theory. In reality, the time spent creating metrics is often better spent running the business. But, there is also a dark side to creating metrics: metrics well-constructed are a double edge sword for managers. They tell you how good and how bad things really are. If you are on the good side, you'll get promoted. If you are on the bad side, no amount of wiggling will save you in the long run. This is especially true with well-constructed and essential metrics. Let's take profit, which is a key component of staying in business. If it is high, you get promoted. If it is low, you get fired. So, do you bet on yourself to generate good metrics when most things are outside your control? Or, do you postpone metric creation and build mythical stories around the meeting campfires and PowerPoint presentations? Most people pick option two. Rolling the dice can be dangerous but highly lucrative. Once it leaves your hand, you can't dispute the results - though many will try. These are Schrödinger Metrics. Like Schrödinger's Cat that was half-dead and half-alive within a box until someone checked, Schrödinger Metrics are metrics where the manager is half-dead and half-alive until someone decides to collect the metric. These metrics always exist, but most managers prefer no one looks so they can at least be half-alive. Maybe that's why everyone is so miserable at work - everyone is half-dead. Certainly, other ways exist if we look for them, ask the question, or embrace the daily rolling of boulders up hills. #### Related Items [[Metrics]] [[Business]] [[Performance]] [[Existential]] [[The Human Condition]] [[Management]]