Why Can't We Get Anything Done?

After a while, what was originally adopted as a means to an end becomes an end in itself. There is no function that is more culpable in this regard than human resources. In company after company, the human-resources department puts into place a whole bunch of policies that undoubtedly started with good intentions. But in time, those policies, which originally were just a means to an end, become ends in themselves. And nobody remembers what outcome those policies were actually intended to produce.

What you end up with are sacred cows -- things that you take for granted; processes, practices, and rules that you think will help you get things done. In reality, all they do is get in the way of getting things done.

12. Professor Otis Redding will now address the class.

There's an old saying in business: What gets measured is what gets done. What's happening today is the flip side of that. Measurement has become a tyranny that makes sure that nothing gets done.

I've developed what I like to call the Otis Redding Theory of Measurement, which is named for his song "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay." In that song, Redding sings, "I can't do what 10 people tell me to do, so I guess I'll remain the same." That line sounds as if it could be about companies' misconceptions about measurement.

Companies have managed to convince themselves that, since what gets measured is what gets done, the more they measure, the more stuff will get done. Last summer, I met a woman who works for a large oil company, and she told me that the company has 105 measures for which she is responsible. So I asked her, "How many of those 105 measures do you pay attention to?" Her answer? "None." Because in the end, she's measuring so many things that she doesn't pay attention to any of them -- 105 equals zero.

13. Sure, it's a measurement -- but is it important?

Here's another measurement problem: You can measure the wrong things. General Motors is a perfect example of this; it's measurement central. GM can tell you about everything having to do with a car's outcome: how much of every kind of material went into a car's manufacture, how many defects it has, how many hours of labor went into making it. The company has about 1,000 measures of outcome. But what GM doesn't have (yet) are process measures. And without process measures, you don't know where to intervene to change outcomes. Measurement can, in fact, be crucial to achieving the right kinds of action -- but you must do the right measurements.

14. Pogo would be proud!

Another piece of corporate behavior that prevents companies from implementing good ideas is ugly internal competition. American business has fallen in love with the idea that the best way to get people to do things well is to have them compete with one another. That mind-set derives from a sloppy sports analogy: People run faster if they run against someone else. That may be true for track, but when it comes to learning, people learn best when they're operating in a mode that is less competitive.

Companies that adopt internal competition as their operating style might as well post as their corporate mission statement that famous saying from the comic strip "Pogo": "We have met the enemy, and it is us." I remember talking with the people at Southwest Airlines shortly after its leader, Herb Kelleher, was the subject of a "Fortune" article on what makes a good CEO ("Is Herb Kelleher America's Best CEO?" May 2, 1994). The reaction inside the company was, Now we're in trouble. Because when a company becomes that successful, people inside that company start to pick at one another. And what Southwest employees ended up saying to me was, "Thank God for the United Airlines shuttle!" It took a little of that good old external competition for Southwest to remember that the real adversary is on the outside, not on the inside.

15. What do I do? When do I get started?

So what's the remedy? The remedy is to do something! San Francisco 49ers head coach Steve Mariucci once said, "I never wear a watch, because I always know it's now -- and now is when you should do it."

If you want the future to be better than the present, you have to start working on it immediately. Remember: What you want is better than, not optimal. Your job is to do something today that's better than what you did yesterday. And to do something tomorrow that's better than what you did today.

16. Make knowing and doing the same thing.

The challenge for companies -- and for individuals inside those companies -- is to build a culture of action. The best description of the knowing-doing gap that I've ever heard came from a woman in one of my executive programs. She said, "Benchmarking is very popular today -- but companies benchmark the wrong thing. They benchmark what other companies do, when they should be benchmarking how those companies think."