Many managers assume that numbers do not lie but, when measuring performance, they often do not tell the whole story. For example, your organization's sales may have increased 7% over the last year but there is no metric to show that the overall industry has increased 18%. Managers are not seeing the whole picture if they are viewing incorrect numbers or failing to consider qualitative data that may better place the numbers in context.

To Prepare for this Discussion, take a moment to review the articles "The Five Traps of Performance Measurement" (Likierman, 2009), and "Three Rules for Making a Company Truly Great" (Raynor & Ahmed, 2013).

question?

Describe how 2-3 of the specific methods discussed in the articles have been, or could be, used to improve performance in your organization or one with which you are familiar.