Seeking the Calm in the Storm: Managing Chaos in Your Business Life

Chapter 12. Organizations: Manage Technology's Outcomes

• Keep it simple; keep it focused

• Create new rules of etiquette

• Get the people part right

Measurement is a tool; it shouldn't be an occupation. Jeffrey Pfeiffer of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, met a woman who worked for a large oil company.^[1] She told him that she was responsible for the 105 measures the company took. When Pfeiffer asked how many of the measures she paid attention to, the woman said “None.”

People in that oil company measured everything they could think of because: (1) no one could accuse them of omitting something important; (2) inclusiveness, “making my list longer than yours,” was a competitive ploy; and (3) taking measurements was so easy. Because too many measurements ...