I come from a long line of pizza fanatics. I would not say connoisseurs because, though we have preferences and opinions, if we were stranded on a deserted island together even the worst of the frozen pizzas would make us happy.
I remember when Domino’s announced the 30-minute pizza delivery. It was so fun to see if, once you ordered the pizza, if it would arrive on time.
Because, if it didn’t, it was FREE!
🍕 Pizza fans loved this. 🍕
Domino’s implemented a system of tracking their pizzas from order to prepare to bake to delivery. This also led to tracking “out the door” times between local Domino’s.
It was fun for us, but their “friendly competitions” had real consequences based on what they were measuring … speed.
To the tune of a $78M lawsuit when a delivery driver ran a red light and seriously injured a motorist.
What We Measure Is What We Optimize
When we measure speed or say productivity, utilization, performance, market share, promotions, and profits. We align our tasks and processes against these metrics. We can hit our measured metric and have lots of unintended consequences.
A Very Different Scorecard
In a book I’m reading they mentioned the small country of Bhutan.
Bhutan has an unusual thing they measure. Instead of typical economic growth factors like Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Bhutan measures happiness!
Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness (GNH) framework measures wellbeing through regular surveys. They look at things like health, education, community vitality, environmental stewardship, time balance, and culture over economic output.
If we’re going to change work culture so it works for everyone, we need to look at how things are being done now and imagine other possibilities and other ways of doing things.
We need to find new things to measure!
What If We Created a New Corporate Scorecard?
So what if we threw out the old corporate scorecard and made up a new one?
Not because productivity, profits, performance, and growth don’t matter. They do.
But what if they aren’t the whole story?
Here are a few things I’d love to see on the corporate scorecard of the future.
- Energy > Hours
We are still remarkably obsessed with time.
- How many hours did you work?
- How many meetings did you attend?
- How quickly did you respond to that email?
But what if we measured energy instead?
Did the work energize you or drain you? Are people recovering from intense periods of work? Are they able to sustain their performance without running themselves into the ground?
- Learning > Looking Like You Know Everything
Traditional performance reviews love the question: “What did you accomplish?”
I’m wondering what would happen if we asked: “What did you learn?”
Because in a world where everything keeps changing, I’d love to see learning become a performance metric instead of something we squeeze in when we have time.
- Contribution > Competition
The pyramid-shaped corporate structure is pretty good at rewarding individual achievement.
- I did this.
- I hit that number.
- I got the promotion.
- I beat the competition.
But imagine a workplace where part of your success was measured by how much you helped other people succeed.
- Did you mentor someone?
- Share what you know?
- Create an opportunity for someone else?
- Make the person next to you better?
I don’t know about you, but the idea that my job would reward me for making the whole stronger makes me very happy. 😊
- Community > Culture on a Poster
Most companies have some version of “We care about our people” printed somewhere.
But what if we actually measured whether people felt it?
- Trust.
- Belonging.
- Psychological safety.
- Willingness to help each other.
What if community was something we measured instead of something we claimed and put up on a poster on the wall?
- Meaning > Busyness
As a coach, I can tell you this: We do not have a lack-of-work problem.
My clients are busy. Very busy.
And yet many are feeling less satisfied, less connected and, ironically, less productive.
What if we measured whether people believed their work mattered?
- Did I make an impact?
- Did I use my gifts?
- Did my work connect to something I care about?
I can almost feel burnout fizzling out just thinking about it.
- Regeneration > Extraction
Here’s a really different question:
Instead of asking, “How much can we get?” what if we asked, “What are we leaving better than we found it?”
- Did we develop people?
- Strengthen the community?
- Create something sustainable?
- Improve the environment?
- Build a product or organization that helps everyone thrive?
That’s a very different definition of success.
And it changes the game from extraction to regeneration.
- Alignment > Achievement
And, of course, I have to put alignment on the scorecard.
Because you can be wildly successful by somebody else’s definition and completely miserable by your own.
Imagine every employee periodically asking:
- Am I aligned with my values?
- Am I using my strengths?
- Am I connected to my purpose?
- Am I spending my time in a way that feels right for me?
Because when the work you do aligns with who you are, that’s where the magic happens.
And when it doesn’t?
Well, you can have the corner office, the title, the money and the impressive LinkedIn profile and still feel like you’re living somebody else’s life. ☹
🍕 Which brings me back to pizza. I love me a pizza arriving in 30 minutes but not at any cost.
Bhutan poses the provocative question that we may be measuring the wrong things.
If we measured joy, meaning, community, learning, wellbeing, alignment, and contribution to others, would we make different decisions? Would we build different organizations? Would we define success differently? Are we measuring what truly matters?
Would we see work culture shifting to a work culture that works for everyone?
And make mine a pepperoni! 🍕