A lasting legacy of scientific management is a reification of numbers that measure stuff in business.  What we measure, how we measure it, and how we interprete those numbers is extraordinarily subjective, but we continue to hear business leaders sing the praises of using numbers to make “objective”, “fact based”, “unemotional” decisions. When we fail to acknowledge the human subjectivity behind data, we risk investing too much faith in what is at best a historical rendering, creatively constructed to make us feel more secure in making decisions.

Don’t get me wrong – numbers and the measurements we construct with them are great, and they have their place in decision making.  But deciding that the only things that matter are things that can be measured and counted is a short sighted way to run a business.