You can’t manage
Peter Drucker
what you can’t measure.
This often cited quote lies at the heart of a lot of things: change management, quality management, staff diversity, environmental footprint, CO2 output … you know it. Specifically – but certainly not only – in business.
This is why many millions of dollars, and countless hours, have been invested in creating suitable measurement tools, such as:
- The GRI to outline fundamental priority areas across all industries.
- The SASB standards for integrated reporting, or
- The Higg Index specifically for the textiles and footwear industry.
To just name a three arbitrarily selected ones.
Now, there is an inherent chain of argument in why we start out with measuring all kinds of things. That chain usually runs as follows, and as can be seen: while intuitive and well intended, it is fairly fragile as to its stringency:
Measurement => Data
Measurement creates data.This is generally speaking true, albeit the reliability and accuracy of the measurement may be an issue, as could be the quality of the data obtained.
But: data is seen as indispensable to get to ‘informed’ decisions.
Data => Information
The frequent, but unfortunately incorrect assumption is: Data equals or creates information.
Without ‘understanding’ the data there is no such thing as information.
‘Understanding’ data though is a process whereby things such as correlations are separated (and made separable) from causalities for example. Only in doing so ‘meaningful and relevant information’ can be distilled from vast amounts of data points.
Information => Knowledge
Nothing else could be further from the truth.
Let’s take a naive (of not to say ‘dumb’) example: Just because the whole of Wikipedia is available to me as information, does certainly not mean that I know all there is contained in this online encyclopedia. Further, there is also a body of practical knowledge that each of us acquires over our lifetime consequence of hands-on trial and error experiences.
Knowledge is built by integrating a body of information with hands-on application and experience.
Knowledge cannot exist without information.
Yet, information is not equivalent to knowledge. At all.
Knowledge => Action
Again: our present day reality does proof this assumption to be entirely false and inaccurate.
Climate Emergency anyone?
We assume that action always and invariably follows knowledge. Yet no, not at all.
Knowing things are wrong and need to be improved, and even knowing how they could be improved does not imply that people ‘take the finger out and kick into action.
Going from knowledge to action means acceptance that things will be different going forward. Possibly fundamentally different. And likely in a way different, that neither imagination, nor fear nor dreams would tell us. Different means uncertainty. So long as the concrete action does not take place but is just in our minds. And uncertainty is not something that as a species we are well set up to cope with.
Usually action only happens when the underlying ‘pain’ is too much to bare.
Or in other terms: Action generally only happens when it is the least bad option of any option available.
Measurement => Data => Information => Knowledge => Action
Each => means a conscious, active act of effort to progress from one state to the next.
It is all but an automatic process.
And that’s the one issue we often overlook.
The progress from one state to the next has to be forced.
In terms of physics: going from Measurement via Data, Information, Knowledge to (finally!) Action means reducing the degree of entropy along this chain of argument. It is not something that happens naturally.
Going going from Measurement via Data, Information, Knowledge to Action means: effort, time and cash investments, unfailing commitment and constant persuasion of others along all the way. It’s grindingly hard work. A constant swimming against the mainstream. It’s exhaustive. With very little if any gratification.
And yet, it is a path we will not be able to avoid.
We have already entered this one way road, possibly involuntarily.
Turning back is not possible,, stopping is the end.
We may as well enjoy the ride.
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Learn More:
Harvard Business Review:
Kenneth P. Pucker: Overselling Sustainability Reporting: We’re confusing output with impact.
