On my morning walk I listened to Seth Godin on Tim Ferris's latest episode on his podcast. When Seth talks (or blogs), there is a nugget of advice in nearly every sentence and this podcast was no different. However, what stuck to me was the discussion around "false proxy".
Proxies are something that are easier to measure and a close approximation to something that is hard to measure (Ex: Weight/BMI as a measure of health, using ranking as a proxy to decide to buy a book, using reviews as a proxy to select a good restaurant etc.,). While they all make sense, it could become a problem if we elevate the proxy and get obsessed with making the proxy look good and completely forgetting to improve the real thing we wanted to improve.
I could clearly see a lot of false proxies all around:
- Processes that have been degenerated by measuring things that won't make any meaningful difference to the org or the customer the org is serving.
- Continuations of certain roles which are no more relevant, but makes one feel good about something just because the role exists
- Bureaucratic/centralized controls that stifle creativity and pace but makes someone creating such things to feel good
- Measuring cost over value
- Various employee engagement surveys that someone believes will give an accurate picture of what people feel in the trenches
- Meetings and more meetings to measure progress
- Expensive gifts as a proxy to show love
- Expensive exercising gadgets to believe we are progressing toward our health goals
- #books read as a proxy to knowledge/wisdom
- #meetings attended/set-up as a proxy to productivity
