"Reflections of a Recovering Management Accountant"
Tom Johnson
Portland State University
co-author, Relevance Lost
Deming said that 97% of what matters cannot be measured.
- Today, it often seems that 97% of management attention
is on measures. This means that we are spending most of our time
on what doesn't matter.
Starting with Galileo, Western scientific approach to measurement based on separating things which are connected, in order to measure distinct properties.
- In the process, we gradually began to sever the
connections in our mind, to the point that we lost awareness
of the connections altogether. We began to work with abstractions.
Our fondness for quantifiable measures became
a foundation for the mechanical world, and for a mechanical viewpoint
that gradually extended to how we see everything.
In the 20th century, we started to see ourselves in our organizations in this light.
- By this time, we had lost awareness
that the process of measurement destroys what is natural.
Nature does not measure. Nature recognizes patterns.
Emerging "post measurement organizations"
- Toyota has no standard cost accounting system to control operating activities
- Scania, a leading Swedish firm, has a uniquely successful approach to new product development.
- People developing capacity to focus on the means rather than the ends in complex human processes.
- This involves measurement but measurement in the
service of learning and enhancing a rich context of tacit knowledge.
Nature does not focus on ends. Nature knows only means.
- Can we understand the deeper logic of nature --
can we learn to trust that focusing on the means will suffice?
How do we know we are learning?
- Are we undoing the mechanical ?
- Are we working more and more toward the natural?