In The Age of Paradox, Charles Handy writes the following:
"...the McNamara Fallacy: The first step is to measure whatever
can be easily measured. This is OK as far as it goes. The second
step is to disregard that which can't be easily measured or to
give it an arbitrary quantitative value. This is artificial and
misleading. The third step is to presume that what can't be
measured easily really isn't important. This is blindness. The
fourth step is to say that what can't be easily measured really
doesn't exist. This is suicide."
I believe that the attempts at measuring organizational learning
are trying to resolve one of Handy's paradoxes. Yes, learning is
important; No, we can't measure it. Cool! Attempts to measure
either the amount of learning (whatever 'units' we might conceive)
or the value of learning (whether in avoided costs or lives saved)
is trying to bring together alien disciplines: accounting with its
focus on numbers and formulas and humanities with its focus on the
growth of human development.
If you want to know how much more valuable a tree is after it has
developed from a sapling into something which can yield x hundred
board-feet of lumber, that's one thing. If you want to know how
much more valuable a person is (or an organization is) having
learned how to yield x hundred instances of 'excellent customer
service', maybe you can even try to do that -- but I don't think
you really can. You will -never- be able to determine how much
extra business that excellent customer service might have brought
you, or how much merely middling customer service might have cost
you.
I believe some things we just have to do because we think they're
the right things to do, measurements be damned. It's a matter of
-values- not of -value-.
Michael A
-- Michael Ayers *** The area code for St. Paul changed on 12 July 98 to 651 *** mailto:mbayers@mmm.com Voice (651) 733-5690 FAX (651) 737-7718 IT Educ & Perf Svcs\3M Center 224-2NE-02\PO Box 33224 St Paul MN 55133-3224 "Sometimes the right question is, 'Are we asking the right question?'" Ideas contained in this note represent the author's opinions and do not intentionally represent the positions of anyone else in this galaxy.Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>