Metric meeting machines or meaningfully motivated maneuverers? Is how we’re measuring what we want to achieve, setting ourselves up for success or failure?

This year I set myself the goal to read 24 books. Why? Because reading is something I enjoy, I like to do regularly, is one of the ways I learn the most and most widely in an accessible way and something I have always wanted to do more of. In fact when I’m reading I have better, more interesting conversations, or at least feel more confident starting and having conversations, and it often means I’ve found a good balance of giving myself space and time to rest. In short reading for me is both a value in itself and a gateway to more things that matter to me. 

Just over halfway through the year I have finished book 14 and was deciding what would be number 15 of the 24. What shaped my decision wasn’t the book I wanted to read however but the one I thought I could finish more easily to chip away at the 24 book target. 

If I continue with that approach I will either be lucky and discover the books I want to read are all short and/or easy to finish, or I read 9 more books I don’t really want to read but that help me reach my target. In short, my thinking has shifted to, what books will help me reach my target of 24 books? 

Thinking that isn’t really helping me achieve what I wanted, which was to read more and to enjoy that process.

With hindsight a better metric would have been pages read in a year, yes page and font sizes vary but they’re more consistent than book sizes. Or even reading for 15 minutes a day every day or 360 days of the year. 

What the experience has highlighted is the impact our metrics of success can have on how we work towards what we want. 

When we set ourselves things we want to achieve, be they outcomes or outputs, how do we relate to them? 

Do we, as I did in the book case, become shaped by achieving the metric rather than the motivation behind the metric?

What does that mean for how we approach defining and measuring what success looks like? 

Why define success?

Having a sense of how we know what we want to achieve or how we’ll measure it can make it easier to work towards it, especially if it is intangible. If we think about travelling to a destination, a postcode is easier to find than the first line of the address or a street or town name. 

However, to define success it helps to have a sense of what we really want. 

What really is success for us? How do we work it out?

Success is subjective and what it really is is often about more than we may think. For example, take something you want to achieve and answer three to five times what makes that important.

Coming back to reading, what makes it important is that I enjoy it and it enables me to find perspective. What makes that important is that I want to spend more time doing things I enjoy and perspective helps me be more present. What makes that important is that when I am present I appreciate more of life, it feels richer and I feel part of it; rather than living out rehearsed patterns and plans I focus on what really matters. 

Looking at these answers what stands out is the metric of reading 24 books doesn’t feel like it will ever be success given that enjoyment and perspective are what this is really about. 

Another way to look at what may be behind the success is considering what the result is of achieving what you want. Similarly, you could complete the sentence ‘and when I achieve x that will mean’ 3 to 5 times. 

If we know what we really want then what is the point in metrics?

We may not even need metrics when we understand and know what we’re really working towards, that may be motivation enough. However metrics can be a good motivator and indicator that we’re working towards what we want, and it may be that there are more than one metric that makes measuring what we want more meaningful.

For example with reading, as I mentioned, the number of pages read may have been more useful, so too would checking whether I am enjoying reading more, and whether I feel more confident making conversation? 

While one clear metric can be useful, a few may give a better representation of the range of things we want to achieve in working on something or reduce the risk of tunnel-visioning on achieving the metric rather than the motivation behind the metric.

What if metrics can show us what it is really about?

Without my 24 book target I wouldn’t have known that what was important was reading consistently rather than the quantity of reading. 

Metrics, even imperfect metrics, can help us better understand what success means and looks like for us. Ultimately we can only think so far before we have to try, think some more and then refine. This process also highlights the importance of reviewing the metrics themselves. 

How are we measuring how the metrics are doing? 

What are we doing to check that these metrics are helpful? 

We may not know they are unhelpful until we have a moment like the book choosing process. 

Either way what can we do to ensure we are continuing to follow and work towards what matters and not be at the mercy of the metrics we have created for ourselves? 

What would it be to have a means of meaningfully measuring how we’re progressing in or towards what really matters to us? 

What would it be to be a meaningfully motivated maneuverer adapting metrics as we become clearer on what we really want rather than metric meeting machines, living and working towards the metrics we have made for ourselves?