Filtered dossier

measurement

  • 4 / 4
  • No visual on file
    Incentive Design Entry #0381

    The reason a safety bonus can hide accidents

    Paying a team for a clean record rewards two different things: fewer incidents and fewer reports. Only one of them is under the reporter’s direct control.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0381

    An incentive on a reported number acts on the reporting. The absence of records is not the absence of events.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Platform Mechanics Entry #0283

    The reason a metric becomes a target and then a lie

    Any measure good enough to manage by is good enough to game, and the gaming arrives through exactly the same channel as the improvement.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0283

    A measure used as a target stops describing the thing it was chosen to describe.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Statistical Illusions Entry #0440

    Why counting something changes what gets counted

    A measure requires a definition, and once the measure is consequential the definition becomes something to be managed rather than merely applied.

    Master
    The hidden part #0440

    A number is a definition applied to the world. Make the number consequential and the definition becomes the thing under negotiation.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Incentive Design Entry #0392

    Why a quota changes the composition of output

    A quota specifies a count. Whatever is not counted becomes the cheapest thing to sacrifice, so the total holds while the mix quietly deteriorates.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0392

    A quota does not raise output. It rearranges output around the one attribute that is being counted.

    Open file