Better Measurement leads to Better Business

I recently read an article on "How to Exert Authority At Work without Yelling or Screaming" on Forbes. It was an interesting read, but what struck me most is that when people write such articles, they neglect to realise that their suggestions almost go against the grain of the adage of "a well oiled machine". Their suggestions are well thought through and well documented and would frankly be a fantastic way to apply oneself in the event that you had a big "pause" button on your life and a mute button on your mouth.

But the reality is that we don't have that, and our personal filter systems when we're pressed to the edge are poor, at best. The trouble is that the sequence is out of order. Rather than resolve issues when they arise, which is an important skill best suited to people who think well on their feet, not people with anger issues, is to plan better: measure intrinsically every arbitrary thing that can impact on a project or a sale and then collate and collect this information. It sounds simple and obvious, but most of the biggest companies in the world don't do this, and it is why their smaller competitors are rapidly approaching their pace.


I agree that it’s important to manage your responsibilities with a keen check on your temper, but the guidance from the article doesn’t address the root of the problem. Because of this, people who are like this who read this (i.e. a very small percentage) will likely think to themselves “okay, I’ll do that next time” and next time rolls around, and they’ve shouted the whole room down.

No it comes from a much deeper sense of better time management to begin with, better anger management and a slightly more relaxed attitude towards contigencies.

The trouble in most workplaces is that people who only know one or two levels deep in a, say, 6 level deep project make decisions about the outcome and make promises that they don’t know whether they can keep and, more dangerously, that they don’t know HOW will be kept, and if it worked before, it’ll work again this time, right?

Well, no.

Many tenders are won by organisations who have project managers who have no clue and scarily, they don’t ask the levels below them to get timing and materials estimates and so they pretty much just guess. Obviously this has massive implications, but if their price is lower and they can deliver on time, then the buyer will choose them. But at what internal cost? Migraines and headaches from the people responsible for delivering on the inaccurately predicted forecasting, lost jobs for those who just couldn’t get it over the line, because the KPI was set by someone else without an understanding of the complex nature of the request.

I would relate it to a child asking their parents to practically instantaneously produce a Big Mac exactly as they would at McDonalds. The result would likely be a lopsided almost-hamburger with a not-so-special sauce and no sesame seed bun, that would have taken 40 minutes to prepare. The child would chuck a tantrum because its not in their time or taste expectations, because mum and dad don’t have a miniaturised purpose built assembly line factory to cook and prepare the menu, and deliver under strict time expectations.

This comes back to my biggest suggestion to businesses everywhere: if you can quantify and measure every action you take to a practically microscopic level and have clear lines of reporting, a project manager can very easily obtain the times and resources and their costs associated in order to provide a competitive and meanwhile accurate quote.