There is no single right answer or path forward, but there is one right way to frame the problem.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
In organizations, once you articulate how success will be measured, everybody tries to game the system so that they are measured in the best possible way.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Success metrics often lead people to manipulate their actions to meet those criteria.
Clayton M. Christensen highlights the tendency of individuals within organizations to focus on meeting success metrics, sometimes at the expense of genuine performance or ethical standards. When success is measured by specific metrics, employees may prioritize those goals over broader objectives, leading to a culture of manipulation rather than true achievement.
Themes
SuccessMetricsManipulationPerformanceOrganizations
In practice
Example use cases
During a corporate training session to discuss the impact of performance metrics.
More from Clayton M. Christensen
All quotes βUnderstanding motivation is one of the most important things we can do in our lives, because it has such a bearing on why we do the things we do and whether we enjoy them or not.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
Companies, in fact, are specifically organized to under-invest in disruptive innovations! This is one reason why we often suggest that companies set up separate teams or groups to commercialize disruptive innovations. When disruptive innovations have to fight with other innovations for resources, they tend to lose out.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
There is no evidence that success in business will make us happy people or allow us to have happy families.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
By definition, big data cannot yield complicated descriptions of causality. Especially in healthcare. Almost all of our diseases occur in the intersections of systems in the body.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
The breakthrough innovations come when the tension is greatest and the resources are most limited. That's when people are actually a lot more open to rethinking the fundamental way they do business.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
Similar quotes
A man of abilities and character, of any sect whatever, may be admitted to any office of public trust under the United States.
Edmund RandolphRead
May it be my privilege to have the happiness of establishing the commonwealth on a firm and secure basis and thus enjoy the reward which I desire, but only if I may be called the author of the best possible government; and bear with me the hope when I die that the foundations which I have laid for its future government, will stand firm and stable.
AugustusRead
At headquarters, where everyone lived under the tremendous pressure of responsibility, probably nothing was more welcome than a dictate from above. That meant being freed of a decision and simultaneously being provided with an excuse for failure.
Albert SpeerRead
To win is always good for the feeling of the whole team.
Jurgen KloppRead
If you don't demand that your people maintain. High performances to remain on your team, Why should they be proud of the association?
Lou HoltzRead
Be a light, not a judge. Be a model, not a critic
Stephen CoveyRead