Examining measurement, incentives, performance, and what happens when the metric becomes more important than the outcome.
We often talk about friction like it is something to eliminate. Remove the obstacles.Streamline the process.Automate the work.Make it frictionless. But I think that misses something important. Not all friction is bad. A well-oiled machine still has friction. The parts engage, push against each other, and create the resistance necessary to transfer energy and do …
We’ve all heard it: “If you’re the smartest person in the room, find a new room.” There are two ways to respond. The Servant Learner Leave. Find a smarter room and keep learning. That’s valuable, but it’s largely a short-term strategy. You build relationships around what you can learn next, and your network can become …
We celebrate too early. Hitting the goal feels like a win, but a result alone doesn’t prove that we actually learned anything. If the same mistakes show up the next time we try, then the first “win” was really just a temporary outcome. The real win comes when we achieve the next goal without repeating …
Solution evolution can be a good thing. We learn, adapt, and improve. But there is a point where evolution becomes substitution—each new solution simply solves the problems created by the previous one. The pattern becomes: Problem → solution → unintended problem → new solution → new unintended problem → repeat. Each step can look reasonable …
Read more “Solution Evolution can make many products Without Solving a single Problem.”
Imagine a Monthly Business Review of Pearl Harbor. The presenter walks into the room with a confident smile. “Overall, a pretty successful month. Our team showed great resilience.” Ten air-to-air wins. Ten ground-to-air wins. Thousands of servicemen healthy and ready for deployment. A new reef system seeded in the harbor. Green checkmarks everywhere. Sounds pretty …
Read more “When Your MBR Can Only Report Wins, Goodhart’s Law Goes on Steroids”
Everyone wants the project delivered faster, cheaper, and with more features. The problem? The laws of project gravity still apply. The Iron Triangle—Scope, Time, and Cost—is one of the simplest ways to understand why projects go sideways. Change one side of the triangle and you put pressure on the other two. Want more scope? You …
Okay, okay, O-K, um, okay, oh, okay. They can all mean radically different things to different people. Yet we use them almost universally, as if everyone knows exactly what is meant by two to four letters that have become more of a single sound in today’s conversational English than an actual verbal expression. So, to …
So like the pod cast, don’t like the pod cast. I am not telling you to or not. But if you want a master class in how to use statics and history to make your point and get your message across Mr. Haidt interview is it !!! Check out Jonathan Haidt Returns (on the anxiety …
Read more “Great used of statics and history to support your Message”