Skip to main content

The Great Debate - Measurement

i am hoping to start a healthy debate with this one. I am reading a book and this sentence jumped out at me:

You simply can't improve what you don't measure.


I am not sure I agree, but I can't put my finger on any arguments against it. What do you think? Can you improve something that you don't measure?

Comments

Jamie Notter said…
The statement is accurate, but not always helpful. True, you can't improve something if you don't measure it. Improve = make better, which requires you to know what it was and what "better" is, or at least why what you have now is better. But there an infinite number of ways you can measure something, with numbers being one tiny piece of it.

I think the statement has been used to argue that if you can't attach quantitative measures, then you're lost, and I disagree with that. Like the debate going on over at Acronym about ROI of social Media. I think we overinflate the importance of quantitative (and financial) measures.

The helpful part of the statement, though, is to push people to be much more aware of how they know what they know. We often want to skip measurement (awareness) because it's hard, and just hope that we're improving. I don't support that either.
November 23, 2009 at 10:28 AM
Wes Trochlil said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
November 23, 2009 at 11:03 AM
Wes Trochlil said…
Um, I don't know how that last post got there. Matt, can you delete it?

What I WANTED to say is this:

You can most certainly improve something that is not measured, but you can't PROVE you improved it without some kind of measurement.

I think that's why one does need quantitative measures whenever possible. If one tells me "Our social media efforts are paying off" I'd most certainly respond, "Really, how can you prove that?"
November 23, 2009 at 11:05 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10 Thoughts on #ASAE10

Ok, so I could have spelled out the title, but chose the hashtag - #asae10. Supposedly there were over 8,000 tweets with the hashtag, but probably countless more direct messages of messages that left out the hashtag but were conference related. Two years ago, we were using twitter as a backchannel to talk about speakers. Now, over 800 people sent conference related tweets. If you aren't on Twitter, you are already late to the party. Anyway, on with the post... In no particular order, my thoughts on this years ASAE Annual Conference: 1. LA was a good venue. Lots to do. Hotels close by. Only downside was the rooms were a bit of a hike. 2. I missed Sunday because of family obligations. That really put me behind the 8 ball. Since I led a session, that meant I only got to go to 3 true sessions. Sorry, I don't count Joy Behar and the closing session. Although Marshall Goldsmith was good, I probably wouldn't have gone to see that speech as a Learning Lab. 3. Based on #
11 comments
Read more

Sunk Costs, Marginal Costs and Economics

When I was in college, I hated Economics. Then, several years later, I found myself teaching undergrad Econ and learned an appreciation for it. Now today, I have an even bigger appreciation for it. I have also noticed that not enough people have a solid grasp of some basic econ concepts that can be applied to everyday life. Two of these are cost related. Here are some basic definitions from The Economist website : Sunk Costs - When what is done cannot be undone. Sunk costs are costs that have been incurred and cannot be reversed, for example, spending on ADVERTISING or researching a product idea. They can be a barrier to entry. If potential entrants would have to incur similar costs, which would not be recoverable if the entry failed, they may be scared off. Marginal Costs - The difference made by one extra unit of something. Marginal revenue is the extra revenue earned by selling one more unit of something. The marginal cost (or whatever) can be very different from the AVERAGE c
1 comment
Read more

Do you want your association to be Walmart?

Earlier this week, I had a small Twitter discussion with Kevin Holland ( @associationinc ) regarding aggregation as a value proposition. @associationinc - Deciding your role is to aggregate other people's value is like George Costanza wearing sweatpants. "You're telling the world, 'I give up.'" @cardcat - Interesting comment about aggregating. Don't you think it is a viable option for a small association who can't afford it? @associationinc - Nothng wrong with aggregating content as long as you don't perceive it to be your value proposition. There's no real future in it. @cardcat - Don't think it is THE value proposition, but I think it could be A value to members, a big value. @associationinc - A big value is something you offer that nobody else can or that u can do better. Aggregating content is easy, there4 unsustainable. @cardcat - True, it isn't sustainable. But I almost think if you don't act as an aggregator, you risk folks
3 comments
Read more