Blog of Rob Galanakis (@robgalanakis)

You must manage what you can’t measure

We all know the quote:

You can’t manage what you can’t measure.

The quote is often incorrectly attributed to W. Edwards Deming. Thank goodness, because that sentiment is absolutely ridiculous, and Deming is one of my heroes. In fact, a more accurate Deming quote is:

The most important figures that one needs for management are unknown or unknowable… but successful management must nevertheless take account of them.

It’s very important to understand how absurd the “can’t manage what you can’t measure” idea is. It leads to articles like this:

It is an old management adage that is accurate today. Unless you measure something you don’t know if it is getting better or worse.

No, it wasn’t accurate when Peter Drucker promoted it, and it isn’t accurate today. This quote is so counter intuitive, I’m not sure it became popular. Are your managers idiots? Are your employees automatons? Do you believe you can measure everything about your business? That the more you measure, the more successful you will be?

If you want to truly engage with employees as empowered and creative individuals, you must manage what you can’t measure. If you want to create a learning organization optimized for long-term health, you must manage what you can’t measure. To forget this is to engage in one of the great sins of management.

An absolutely wonderful book on this topic is Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations. I really encourage anyone who believes that measurement is a prerequisite for management read it. It explains, with anecdotes, statistics, and logic, how depending on measurement will lead to deep organizational problems.

2 thoughts on “You must manage what you can’t measure

  1. robert kist says:

    Reading over Deming and then looking what’s going on in the real world is often sad and funny at the same time. I too recommend studying his 14 points – great inspiration on how to make a better work environment, especially when you think about how it promotes employee wellbeing and also product quality as a result.

    And thanks for the book recommendation. Looks interesting!

  2. […] it turns out that Ed never made that statement. In fact, his original thought got garbled over the years. What Deming did say was “The most important figures that one needs for management are unknown or […]

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