The HBR Guides Collection (8 Books) (HBR Guide Series)

139

The Five Traps

of Performance

Measurement

by Andrew Likierman

In an episode of Frasier, the television sitcom that follows

the fortunes of a Seattle-based psychoanalyst, the epony-

mous hero’s brother gloomily summarizes a task ahead:

“Diffi cult and boring—my favorite combination.” If this

is your reaction to the challenge of improving the mea-

surement of your organization’s performance, you are not

alone. In my experience, most senior executives fi nd it an

onerous if not threatening task. Thus they leave it to peo-

ple who may not be natural judges of performance but

are fl uent in the language of spreadsheets. The inevitable

result is a mass ...