Collaborative Leadership, 2nd Edition

4Measuring Collaboration

You get what you measure

Ever since Frederick Taylor published his Principles of Scientific Management in 1911, measurement in business has proved its value. Taylor’s time and motion studies focused on getting the most out of individual activities – ‘the science of shovelling’, for example, determined the optimal shovel-load a worker could lift. The answer – 21 pounds – delivered a three- to four-fold increase in productivity.¹

Today scientific management has morphed into the strongly held conviction that you get what you measure. Every organization, from the police force to Wal-Mart, employs a range of measures to run its business. We no longer just measure productivity, but also customer satisfaction, process improvement, ...