# The External-Internal Work Ratio By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2023-12-17 Organizations frequently have a dashboard full of metrics. Most of these metrics are a waste of time to create and consume. They tell the individual relatively little about what is going on in terms of anything one would care about. A metric that could be very powerful is one I have never seen in use within any organization. This metric would be the ratio of external work accomplished per unit of internal work. This metric situates how much bureaucracy is required or being used for the organization to produce what is of value to those outside the organization. This is fundamentally a metric of organizational efficiency. When E > I, the company adds value to people outside the organization. When E < I, the company exists primarily for those inside the organization. It is an adult play club of which one becomes a member and consumes resources. Given that this is such a simple metric, it is perhaps profoundly odd that it is used more frequently. Some might argue that this is a version of Return on Investment (ROI). In a way, it is. The main difference is that ROI is a metric used to compare competing alternatives. The E/I work ratio is a macro-organizational metric of performance. Perhaps because this metric would provide an assessment of the efficiency of the entire organization, it is so uniformly ignored. #### Related Items [[Efficiency]] [[Return-on-Investment]] [[Organization]] [[Purpose]] [[Metrics]] [[Work]]