How do you measure success?
Eric Klein is the man behind Dharma Consulting, and he’s written a lovely blog post about how we measure success … and some of the traps that trip us up. (It follows on nicely from yesterday’s post about making bad decisions)
It tackles a question at the heart of Great Work: What does success look like? For the sake of what, exactly, am I spending my time and money and energy on this?
Here’s an excerpt from the article:
Just then, a five year old girl and her mother enter the YMCA.
The little girl sees the cardboard thermometer. She runs over and presses her back to it. She stands up tall and calls to her mother, “How much am I? How much am I?”The little girl has mistaken the fundraising thermometer for a giant ruler.
Her mother says, “That doesn’t measure how tall you are. It measures money.”The little girl looks confused for a second and then asks,
“How much money am I? Am I a lot of money?”“I guess you’re about $40,000.00,” says her mother.
The little girl smiles and skips away.
You can read the rest of the article – and some thought provoking questions – here.
- Great metrics #1
- What’s the secret of success? (Malcolm Gladwell knows)
- How many different silences can you name?
Tags: Eric Klein, metrics, success
Thanks for this Michael. I do enjoy being introduced to a great voice that I haven’t yet heard…like Eric’s.
A friend suggested an alternate headline for this post – How NOT to measure success.
To measure or not to measure . . . that is one of the Great Work questions.
Thanks for your, Great Work.
Dick – glad you could see Eric’s work too: he’s a lovely guy and I think this is a wonderful parable.
Eric, — not only “to measure or not” but also “why” and “what to do with it” and “how” and…etc.