"Checking the results of a decision against its expectations shows executives what their strengths are, where they need to improve, and where they lack knowledge or information."
One of the problems I think business leaders have with expectations is a emotional attachment to them in some way. If that attachment is too strong, leaders can continue on in a direction spite of the consequences.
That emotional attachment can cause distortion in how we view what is happening around us in our current intitiatives.
As Drucker says, checking or measuring results is the key to ridding ourselves of an unreality distortion field.
The problem is even with meauring we can be tempted to neglect findings to keep reality from seeping in. That's the ultimate state of denial.
There's nothing wrong with passionate connection to a project we're starting up, but that passion has to be controlled and disiplined passion, not the type of passion that blurs what is happening around us.
If we believe something is sure to work, then we shouldn't be afraid of measuring it and letting the numbers tell us the real story.
From that story we can see weaknesses then make adjustments in response to those weaknesses. Measuring can also tell us if our business intel is accurate or there are lacks in the data we're working from.
Expectations are a fickle reality we must be cautious of. They can blind us to a story that is presented to us and in which we so desparately want to work we talk ourselves into believing it's working like we want it to.
We need to discipline ourselves to listen to numbers and measurements rather than what we hope for. Those doing that will know whether the decision they've made is based upon accurate information or not. From there we can than make decisions to do what is needed to make the project work, or drop it altogether.
To not make that decision because we're blinded by our emotions is a dangerous place to allow ourselves to be in. We can't fall in love with anything that we have no surety of working. We need to drop expectations and allow the decision we made to tell the story. It's only there we can really know the answer.
Other Peter Drucker Resources:
The Man Who Invented Management
Beyond the Information Revolution
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Thanks for working so hard on this series, Gary.
Posted by: Easton Ellsworth | August 28, 2007 3:18 PM | Permalink to Comment