» THE HIGH-PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATION PANEL DISCUSSION

by Don Moyer

Performance is largely a numbers game. High-performing companies need to know"how much"

Counter so they can improve profits,"how fast" so they can wori< more productively, and "how satisfied" so
they can spread even greater delight. Metrics help such companies execute, with the precision

Proposal and quantifiable resuits that execution implies.

Numbers don't lie, but they can distract. Businesses often "include far too many measures
and never identify the critical few," warn Balanced Scorecard creators Robert Kaplan and David
Norton in The Strategy-Focused Organization. Those who exce\ at tracking hay may forget to look
for needles, which makes it tough to set priorities.
The maxim "Know thyself" is sound advice for man and management. High performers con-
stantly refresh their self-knowledge by observing both their inner stats and the outside world,
where rapid change can render once key metrics meaningless. They also ask questions that
numbers cannot answer. "How much?" and "How fast?" are important, but so are "Why?" and
"What else?"

Don Moyer can be reached at don@amsite.com.

196 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW