Not Really PG - Dr. Richard Biery on Linguistic Challenges to Performance Measurement

Newsletter on Governance and Leadership

July 2004

I wrote this newsletter for another audience some time ago but it is appropriate for governance leaders. Think of its application to the savvy board and particularly its use of language and numeracy.

Dick

On Measurement

Good strategy requires good thinking. Jean Haley (Endangered Minds, Why Children Don’t Think and What We Can Do About It) observes, “the way people use language is braided together tightly with the way they think.” Language is our vehicle for thought. (This is not to say that thought requires language; language presupposes thought and becomes its tool, which further refines it.) Nevertheless, Haley points out that language development is critical for attentive and sound thinking. Others (e.g. J.P. Moreland) argue that the devaluation of grammar and syntax correlates with the way we use language increasingly to express emotions, convince or sell (emotionally), or create experience and less to examine issues of reasoning, truth verification, or precise expression of thought.

Good thinking at higher levels of conceptualization, such as evaluating trends or strategy, also requires some degree of numeracy (ability with quantitative information, i.e., math). The development of numeracy requires correct facility (syntax and grammar) with language, English in our case. Studies have shown that proper grammatical ability establishes the basis for good math reasoning since we reason linguistically as we learn to do math. (Eventually math becomes a second “language” and we are unconscious of its linguistic underpinnings, but solving a “story-based” algebra problem quickly reminds us of the language-math link.) Poor linguistic capability, poorer math reasoning. Good grammar doesn’t guarantee numeracy but poor grammar does relate to innumeracy.

Back to my point, innumeracy assures poorer systems (and process) thinking. Poor systems thinking, poorer strategic thinking.

Our systems and processes “talk” to us. However, the language used is measurement and data. Therefore, to understand our systems and processes we must learn to understand what the data is telling us or we must ask for measurements that will give the data, and hence, the information we need. We must learn to understand the system’s language. But even with good numeracy skills the human mind is quite limited in grasping the implications in an array of data. (You know how you feel when presented with a large array of data.)

Fortunately, there is a “translation” technique for making the data a great deal more understandable for the average decision-maker. Convert the data to visual information. The proper (honest) representation of the data visually enables the human brain to grasp vast amounts of data easily and correctly, something it can’t do looking at such data alone. We are wired to perceive patterns, even very complex multidimensional patterns and also patterns in motion. Consequently, the best tools for understanding our systems and processes (even financial ones) are data visualization tools that represent data, (especially complex data), visually. In getting started, frequently, if not usually, time should be the x axis, since processes take place in time. The use of simple run charts will tell an immense amount about the process and even whether there is a process!

Richard M. Biery, MD, 2004