> It turns out that empowered people want to do a good job and want to save money.
You have to be careful here. In your example those captains didn’t really care about their job they cared about getting the high score. Metrics, KPIs, etc work but only when they’re setup perfectly aligned with your actual business goals. Measure/score the wrong thing and you’ll get nowhere.
For example, what if the metric posted was distance traveled by a barge. You’d have captains taking the longest routes possible just to get the high score instead of shipping the most product per unit time which is what the manager would have intended.
And Deming has a ton to say on this. Lots of very practical advice on how to measure the right things, yet also avoiding relying too much on measurements. It is unfortunately quite complex and not easily digestible as pop management advice.
You have to be careful here. In your example those captains didn’t really care about their job they cared about getting the high score. Metrics, KPIs, etc work but only when they’re setup perfectly aligned with your actual business goals. Measure/score the wrong thing and you’ll get nowhere.
For example, what if the metric posted was distance traveled by a barge. You’d have captains taking the longest routes possible just to get the high score instead of shipping the most product per unit time which is what the manager would have intended.