Any leader or skilled improvement professional knows that metrics are necessary to define what success looks like, to measure progress toward a defined target, and to assess performance against defined standards. Metrics also serve as a powerful way to demonstrate improvement success to people who might otherwise roll their eyes.

Used properly, relevant metrics provide the much-needed fuel for better decisions, better problem solving, and better improvement. Unfortunately, all too often, organizations operate with an “empty tank” with few, if any, metrics that matter. Data is one thing, meaningful information is quite another.

But as powerful as metrics can be, there are many noble improvement goals for which measuring success is difficult or impossible. Some of the greatest minds recognized this reality.

Consider the saying that’s been attributed to both Albert Einstein and William Bruce Cameron: “Not everything that counts can be counted. Not everything that’s counted counts.” (Sometimes “matters” is used in lieu of “counts,” and “measured” in lieu of “counted.”)

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