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Rob Nix said:
Lord Kelvin (Sir William Thompson, Baron Kelvin of Largs, of thermometer fame) said "If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.
Do I get the $500 in check or cash?
Do I get the $500 in check or cash?
"4/16: We may as well start at the top. The following quote will actually BE hard to top. It may explain why we get into such silly messes, too. Who on earth conjured this pocus up for you Ms. Garvey?
“It stated a fundamental truth---you cannot improve what you cannot measure. We hadn’t reached agreement with the airlines for 20 years on metrics---we have it now. We’re measuring the performance of the system.” Jane Garvey to U.S. Chamber of Commerce, February 2, 2001
“Fundamental Truth!?”
How about, “Figures don’t lie, but liars can figure?” Or, “You don’t measure with a micrometer what you will mark with chalk and cut with an ax.” Look around your headquarters, Ms. Garvey. Where do you think your managers GET the ax handles they use to “deal” with employees who complain?
Back to the fallacy of your “fundamental truth.” Please consider an experiment using the writer of that drivel as your test platform. Have him or her sit in the passenger’s front seat of an official automobile. With the door open, ask him or her to grasp the roof of the car---thumb inside and fingers outside. Close the car door as securely as you can. When your writer calms a bit, ask him or her whether you should open the door promptly, or wait until someone can measure the deflection, compression….whatever. This MAY be a stretch, but assuming your writer thinks his or her situation will be improved WITHOUT the measurement, open the door. Challenge the fundamental truth.
PERHAPS, it is closer to “fundamental,” that “you cannot REPORT, accurately, what you cannot measure.” And there may be the hang-up. Are we spending untold fortunes on REPORTS instead of tapping the wisdom of the field to resolve serious issues? Why is ;the headquarters role migrating from facilitating success in the field with resources to micromanaging the field to create pretty reports?
Let’s hope that Dr. Deming is tethered lest he spin in his grave over what has happened to statistical quality control. You are not likely tapping the sources of the best ideas."
