A step toward creating value

Measurement

The process of measurement changes the reality of what is being measured. This is a well known problem in science at the limits of knowledge, but it is also a problem in the everyday world of life and living.

Human behavior

The question was whether or not improved lighting in the factory improved production rates or not? It turned out that production stabilized at the same level no matter whether the lighting was brighter or dimmer. What appeared to improve production was a change in the lighting ... either brightening or dimming. In other words, simply paying attention to people was what really mattered. In socio-economic measurement, it might be expected that there will be some beneficial result merely by doing data collection.

Making measurements

I learned something about measurement as an engineering student. To understand something, you have to make measurements. If you want to understand causality ... measure what you are doing and measure the impact.

As an accountant trying to get business managers to make critical decisions, we measured everything that seemed to have potential importance. We got the most impact when what we measured had real relevance to the people doing the work. For the shipping department, measuring how many miles a truck drove per tire was important ... and the supervisor of that department knew and cared a lot about it. And when the purchasing department also understood the matter ... the company progressed. Measurement helped identify its importance and keep score so that responsible people could be given credit.

The lesson for TVM Value Accountancy is that we need to measure what is important for the community ... and then get the understanding translated into action that translates into progress.

Community measurements

The lesson for TVM Value Accountancy is that we need to measure what is important for the community ... and then get the understanding translated into action that translated into progress.

MORE TO DO

Value is not created when data are collected, nor when analysis is done. Value is created when the understanding helps get better decisions made and there are better outcomes. Value only gets created when something is built ... when jobs are created ... when constraints are removed ... etc. The is no value increment from added understanding that stay in purely academic circles and is never used.

Academia - huge amount of low value effort

Academic expenditures have grown substantially over the past several decades ... but have the results kept pace. Have the results justified these increased expenditures.

The data are not easy to find ... but it would appear that the activities favored by the academic community are high in visibility and rather low in value. The two key outputs seem to be study that leads to a PhD qualification, and research that furthers an academic career. From a personal perspective these are both fine ... but the global social value is not so clear.

The brain power that is available in the academic setting is impressive ... but it has little value until it is mobilized to do work that has value. It is not at all clear what work being done by the academic community has value ... such metrics broadly speaking do not exist!