Mixed Metaphors

Focus magazine is designed to address subjects or issues that appear to be of concern to managers at all levels in their drive to achieve organizational high performance. In this edition we address a curious phenomena, which we observe in almost every organization we work with.  It is the phenomenon of the “mixed metaphors”.  This refers to the use of a variety of different measurement and management techniques employed by organizations simultaneously.  In many instances measurement systems depict aspects of the business in dissimilar ways, sometimes contradictory, sometimes misleading.  The effect being that the mix of measures, which individually are, perhaps, acceptable representations of portions of the operations of the business, combine to create a hopeless tangle of misinformation.

  Metaphor, met’a-far: a figure of speech by which a thing is spoken of as being that which it only resembles, as when a ferocious man is called a tiger

Mixed Metaphor: an expression in which two metaphors are confused, as to take arms against a sea of troubles

We are so used to managers launching a multitude of “initiatives” that society has developed humor around the notion of the flavor of the month project such as Balanced Scorecard (currently the hottest) or Business Process Re-engineering (the last one prior to the ERP and Y2K frenzies).  Where would Dilbert be if not for all of these initiatives?  A few years ago we worked with a corporation, which paid a premium to employees for working on “improvement initiatives”. They had no difficulty in motivating people to participate in projects, but getting regular work done was a real problem.

With the pace of change in almost every industry sector, the number of initiatives launched by managers has increased (in some organizations) to a pace that leaves the heads of employees spinning. Of course rapid change is justified in the age of e-commerce, and managers must act fast to respond to changes in their environment. Managers who wait for the financial results of their strategies to tell them how well they have done, run the risk of being unable to take corrective action soon enough. Financial measurement systems were not designed for the new ways of doing business.

Most employees are aware that financial measures drive business decisions, but not sufficiently aware of how financial measures may mislead them. A better perspective on financial performance is  “strategic cost management” in which, cost is treated as an investment of resources for the purpose of achieving a set of strategic goals. Managers should concern themselves with understanding the economic structure of the business as it relates to executing strategy.  The organization and it’s employees become focused on the use of resources to accomplish strategic imperatives rather than “satisfy the accountants”.  Surely, the purpose of an measurement system should be to influence desirable human performance.

Financial measurements systems are often inappropriate, and co-exist with other measurement systems, which are hardly representative of the operations of the business. This leads to set of conflicting influences on managers and employees – mixed metaphors.  In one curious example, in a very large well know company, so inappropriate were the financial measurement schemes, that they in essence usurped strategy.  Decisions were primarily made that achieve short-term financial results as depicted by the financial measurement system.  In essence, the measurement became the strategy. All of which led to a human performance system which had no support from a solid business measurement and management framework and finally to unsatisfactory performance.

We believe there is a better solution.  If you read the articles on Value Based Management on our web site (www.focusedmanagement.com) and in FOCUS Magazine at (www.focusmag.com) you will find an alternative view on what we consider to be integrated measurement and management systems. This requires measurement professionals to be very aware of all of the tools available and to determine what techniques should be employed in order to drive people to accomplish strategic objectives.