Assessment - Bill O'Brien LO16632

Roxanne Abbas (rabbas@comp-web.com)
Wed, 21 Jan 98 09:00:16 PST

Replying to LO16547 --

Rick wrote:

> After Bill's talk, Tom Johnson related a Deming story... "In any
> organization, 97% cannot be measured, 3% is measured. But, people are
> spending 97% of their time on the things that are measured." Measurement
> is putting our attention on what doesn't matter.
>
> Comments? Follow-ups to any of these points?

I probably have never mentioned that I worked my way through college as an
Engineering Aide, got a degree in math and taught math for many years
before going back to school and changing to a career in Human Resources.
For many years I enjoyed applying my facility with mathematical tools in
my work as a Compensation Specialist. Slowly I began to realize that
although management loved quatitative analyses, the important issues
generally couln't be measured or at least couldn't be measured with
validity. Deming was a statistician who evolved into a mangement
specialist. He understood the true, but very limited, value of
measurement. And this knowledge led to his citing the use of employee
performance appraisals as one of *The Seven Deadly Sins*. And, I believe,
performance ranking and forced distribution of ratings are among the most
destructive practices related to appraisals.

Best regards from a reformed mathematician,

Roxanne

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