While I agree with the end goal (focus on effectiveness) the argument here does short shrift to the importance of efficiency in achieving the right outcomes.
The flaw in the argument is that efficiency can be measured by how well teams deliver to a plan.
This is too facile.
In practice efficiency is just as hard to define, manage and measure as effectiveness. Its definition is very much context specific.
The choice is not between effectiveness or efficiency.
Instead start thinking of efficiency as the lens that forces the organization to understand and improve how it can deliver on desired and competing goals under constraints: on capital, time, skills etc.
Efficiency thinking forces you to examine the impact of your constraints, which forces you examine your constraints clearly.
Without this you’ll never really get to the goal of achieving effectiveness because that is precisely what is missing when you use “delivery to plan” as your measure of efficiency.
This is just as critical as measuring your outcomes.
There is no such thing as an “efficiency trap” if you approach it correctly.
I agree that really having clarity on what efficiency means is widely not understood for the applied context. Most people just assume that efficiency is the good thing they know from technology and machines like cars. But what exactly does efficiency mean in the context of complex knowledge work? Not so straight forward anymore…
While I agree with the end goal (focus on effectiveness) the argument here does short shrift to the importance of efficiency in achieving the right outcomes.
The flaw in the argument is that efficiency can be measured by how well teams deliver to a plan.
This is too facile.
In practice efficiency is just as hard to define, manage and measure as effectiveness. Its definition is very much context specific.
The choice is not between effectiveness or efficiency.
Instead start thinking of efficiency as the lens that forces the organization to understand and improve how it can deliver on desired and competing goals under constraints: on capital, time, skills etc.
Efficiency thinking forces you to examine the impact of your constraints, which forces you examine your constraints clearly.
Without this you’ll never really get to the goal of achieving effectiveness because that is precisely what is missing when you use “delivery to plan” as your measure of efficiency.
This is just as critical as measuring your outcomes.
There is no such thing as an “efficiency trap” if you approach it correctly.
I agree that really having clarity on what efficiency means is widely not understood for the applied context. Most people just assume that efficiency is the good thing they know from technology and machines like cars. But what exactly does efficiency mean in the context of complex knowledge work? Not so straight forward anymore…