You are not a number

“Since we do not now have any ways of making computers wise, we ought not now give computers tasks that demand wisdom.”
- Joseph Weizenbaum

There’s a number for everything: the number of steps you take each day, your heart rate, your bank balance. Yet, so often, many of the things that we think are quantifiable are not. This collection of articles looks at a number of those important aspects of life and how amazingly, some of the essential things in your life can't be measured, like how much pain you're in, whether you can accurately taste something, or even how intelligent you are.

These all seem like things we should be able to measure. But in reality, we are often taking educated guesses or using outmoded or even biased ways to measure them.

To start, I would love for you to watch this video by Robert F Kennedy, where he defines what GDP means (gross domestic product). He talks about how this number plays a role in our lives, and how often it is quoted as indicating how well a country is doing, yet in fact, it doesn't measure any of the things that make a country worth living in.

GDP
RFK speech about the gross domestic product


Taste
As I browse my local wine store I often look for suggestions and clues to a good wine to buy. I ask the people in the store, but I also look for labels like the rating from Robert Parker of Wine Spectator magazine or if a bottle has won an award. But it turns out that taste is not something you can quantify in a number even though the rating reviewers give to wine often significantly influence how well that bottle sells.
This fascinating video from Vox shows that regular people and famous wine critics often don’t agree and don’t have a standard at all.
Expensive wine is for suckers


Pain
Back pain, shoulder pain--most people will feel these at some point in their lives, but how much pain will each of us feel? Though it seems like an essential measurement, it turns out there’s no way to measure pain. How do doctors know which patients to treat first or how severe an injury is if they can only rely on a subjective measure? These articles look more closely at pain and quantify this most elusive and vital part of human health.

“Right now, there's no clinically acceptable way to measure pain and other emotions other than to ask a person how they feel,” Tor Wager, lead study author and associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at CU-Boulder
Objectively measuring pain for the first time

Measuring pain how much does it hurt


Brain activity
An electrical impulse travels around your brain and activates different parts of your brain, and lets you perform amazing feats. That sounds about right. Still, it turns out that the fMRI—the technology to measure brain activity—has not been working all this time. This article shows that instead of measuring actual brain activity, the fMRI uses blood flow around the brain as a proxy, and it turns out that assuming that connection was not necessarily the best choice.

“This is likely because fMRIs don’t measure brain activity directly: They measure blood flow to regions of the brain, which is used as a proxy for brain activity because neurons in those regions are presumably more active. Blood flow levels change. “The correlation between one scan and a second is not even fair; it’s poor,” says lead author Ahmad Hariri, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at Duke University.”

“The researchers reexamined 56 peer-reviewed, published papers that conducted 90 fMRI experiments, some by leaders in the field and also looked at the results of so-called “test/retest” fMRIs, where 65 subjects were asked to do the same tasks months apart. They found that of seven measures of brain function, none had consistent readings.”
Duke University researchers say every brain activity study you’ve ever read is wrong


Intelligence
In Steven J. Gould’s enlightening book The Mismeasure of Man, he looks at the long and sordid history of intelligence tests and in particular, the IQ test. Even its founder Alfred Binet disowned it, and the methods and the systems it uses are both deeply rooted in a racist and misogynistic view of the world. Yet to this day, people proudly quote their IQ score and talk about Mensa membership with great pride, while the entire IQ system is based on bad science and insufficient data.

“Not only did Binet decline to label IQ as inborn intelligence; he also refused to regard it as a general device for ranking all pupils according to mental worth. He devised his scale only for the limited purpose of his commission by the ministry of education: as a practical guide for identifying children whose poor performance indicated a need for special education—those who we would today call learning disabled or mildly retarded.”
In this article in The Independent, another set of research comes to the same conclusion.

“We already know that, from a scientific point of view, the notion of race is meaningless. Genetic differences do not map to traditional measurements of skin color, hair type, body proportions, and skull measurements. Now we have shown that IQ is meaningless too."
IQ tests are 'fundamentally flawed'

Numbers and measurement are valuable tools, but that’s all they are. Truth is far harder to come by and requires a much deeper inquiry. Yet, in our fast-paced world, we sometimes settle for numbers alone because they provide a quick and efficient--yet too often incomplete--answer to many of our essential questions.

Build an ecosystem, not a process

We’re at a Premier League football match—the top division of soccer in England, with a global audience of 4 billion—and it’s the start of a new season.

The result of this first game is a surprise. Arsenal—a legendary Premier League team—is facing Brentford, a newly promoted team that has not played in the Premier League in more than 60 years. Brentford’s entire team probably cost less than one of Arsenal’s strikers, who cost about $80 million each.

So how did Brentford end up beating Arsenal 2-0 in this game? 

In a post-match interview, the Brentford manager Thomas Frank gave insight into his framework for building a team to perform competitively even without the best resources in the world. 

His growth model was :

Hard work  

Performance 

Togetherness

and finally, Attitude 

Listening to him, I realized this four-part growth model was an interconnected ecosystem to get players’ mindsets right for each game. 

Hard work is the baseline; when every member of the team works hard they build the performance of the team. As the performance improves, players feel they are making something special, which leads to togetherness. This togetherness builds an attitude of confidence but also humility knowing that if they don’t work hard (the start of the cycle) that performance and togetherness will suddenly evaporate. 

This model spurs players to continue to work hard and feed the growth cycle. 

Even beyond sport, the chance of having the best team in any industry is slim. To get great work you need a team with the right attitude, that mixture of confidence and humility. But as a leader, you can’t start there, because attitude is an experience gained over time, not a skill that can be learned. 

That’s why I think starting with hard work is important. But what do I mean by hard work? 

• Turn up for meetings on time 

• Make a plan for the week’s work 

• Prepare for work sessions

• Make good agendas for productive meetings

• Take good actionable notes when you have meetings and work sessions 

• Share progress at the end of the day/week so everyone knows what is happening 

None of the tasks above are “hard” to do but they are the first steps to building a healthy “hard-working” culture. You don’t need a team of superstars to do these tasks. But if you start doing these tasks consistently the performance of your team will improve over time and so the growth cycle will begin. 

Over time and as your team evolves, established members of the team will be there to help new teammates become part of the cycle. This consistency will give people on your team the confidence and humility to create great new products and services, and most importantly to keep growing.

After 8 out of 38 games of the premier league season, Brentford is 9th out of 20 teams. That in footballing terms is a minor miracle.

Grow vs Manage

Grow :  undergo natural development by increasing in size and changing physically; progress to maturity.
vs
Manage:  be in charge of (a company, establishment, or undertaking); administer; run // succeed in surviving or in attaining one's aims, especially against heavy odds; cope.

A patient is diagnosed with with Type 2 diabetes. The patient is scared and worried, unsure of what to do and what their options are. The doctor in this case provides clear medical and self care instructions and schedules a follow up appointment in a month's time.

The patient tries their best to keep up with the tracking and daily medication required, but because of their work schedule and diet they don't follow all of the doctor's instructions properly and start to feel worse. At their next visit the doctor has to "manage" the medical crisis situation, providing additional education and instruction, as well as medical attention.

With the best of intentions on both sides, the situation keeps getting worse, more and more emergency visits are needed, and more "managing" of the situation ensues. In the end, both patient and doctor feel this is not being resolved or getting better.

This story is not hypothetical; it was told to me by a medical professional.

Too often we "manage" by controlling and fixing a crisis that arises, then exhaling and waiting for the next one. This is unsustainable and this management style is a core reason why people leave jobs they would otherwise enjoy.

“People leave managers, not companies.”

“Workers reported that companies generally satisfy their needs for on-the-job development …[such as] significant increases in responsibility. But they’re not getting much in the way of formal development, such as training, mentoring, and coaching—things they also value highly.” - HBR

So what can you do?

“The more that people are rewarded for doing something, the more likely they are to lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward.” - Alfie Kohn

The approach I'll describe here isn't hard, but it does require you as a manager to be consistent, focused, and honest with the people you manage.

The first step is to understand where the person you are managing is right now. What is their skill level, how do they approach their work, what makes them happy and sad? This understanding can only begin from careful observation.

Once you understand where they are, you can help them figure out how they want to grow. Your careful observation should have given you some clues but asking directly and exploring future growth paths is necessary to get a full picture. 

Thus far this may sound familiar and straightforward. The next stage in a conventional growth path would be to set goals that need to be achieved to attain new skills. 

This is exactly what should not happen! 

Following the goals path leads to the “crisis management” approach. Once goals are set, the tenor of the conversation becomes about testing: did you achieve the goal, when are you going to achieve it, how long will it take, how well did you achieve your goal? The learning becomes not about new knowledge gained but rather about the ability to pass the test. This approach narrows thinking and makes the whole process of growing your career more stressful and less open. 

The alternative approach is to think about growth as progression.

Let's say a person's goal is to get better at communicating ideas. A traditional goals structure would say: set a goal to give a presentation at a conference of your peers.
 
The growth-based approach would say: spend time each week writing a blog post about the work you have done, make a series of diagrams to show your working process, make a series of short presentations about an idea or activity you really enjoy, make a series of short videos about the current project you're working on.

The growth approach is about exploring a wide range of ways to communicate ideas and to do lots of them in quick bursts so the person starts to build a skill, without worrying about failing, and makes it part of how they work.

The role of the manager changes from someone enforcing and setting the rules to someone checking in on, marking, and supporting progression.

The approach focuses on growing skills rather than on the ability to cram to pass one big test. You shift from the crisis management of “”will this person give a good presentation or not?” (and their coming to you two days before without a real plan) to instead, their practice of a series of activities that allow them to explore and learn from each activity and to build on skills learned and from mistakes made. 

To create innovative products and services, companies need to first invest in building a sustainable creative culture where people feel they are growing, rather than being tested. 

Don’t let things get to a crisis point; decisions made in this mode are almost always worse. Help people grow and you and your company will thrive. 

Creative Culture

" The designer has a prescriptive rather than descriptive job.
Unlike scientists who describe how the world is, designers suggest how it might be." - Bryan Lawson

If you're running any kind of creative company, what questions and processes should you come back to regularly to make sure you're on the right track and focusing your energy on what matters? What follows is a set of guiding principles to shape the creation of more sustainable design culture. It focuses on defining the problem, shaping product culture and creating a transparent process.

Defining the Problem
Defining the problem is an important part of figuring out a solution, and having clarity of vision. The following questions need to be posed and answered again and again throughout the product development process to make sure your product or services are on target.

1. What's the problem we think people have?
2. Do they in fact have this problem?
3. How do they solve this problem today?
4. How much do they spend to solve this problem?
5. How much does this problem impact their business/life?

Product Culture
Products and services are made by people. Those people need to feel valued, motivated and happy. It's important to have a clear vision and ensure that your people are supported in its execution. Using this product culture framework and regularly asking the following questions of yourself and your team allows you to gauge the health of your organization.

• Future
  What do we stand for? What are our values?
   

• Framework
  What are the strategies which form the core of our company or service?
   

• Form
  How do we communicate our story?
   

• Feel
  How do people feel after using our product/service?
   

• Function
  Is it clear how to use our product or service?

Transparent Process
Once you have clearly defined the problem and have an engaged workforce, using a transparent process will help you create great products and services in a sustainable manner.

Framework
My framework is a way of logically laying out ideas, organizing them by Vision, Goals, Strategy, Tactics, and Tasks. The framework is a flexible tool which allows you to evaluate ideas at any level and helps you make decisions in real-time about your organization and product. It is also a tool to create consensus in your team about which ideas are truly connected to your vision and which ones are not.

Audience
It's important to understand the whole customer story. It's not about what you want them to do; it's about carefully understanding their current activities and then creating the best possible outcome for those activities. This will create real innovation instead of incremental change.

Market
Find the open spaces in culture; these are where the big opportunities are. This can be a hard path, since no one else is initially working in that space, but by addressing a gap it is also the one most aligned with your customers' needs. If by following your own path you create an innovation, you will have no competition. No competition allows you time and space to build your advantage.

Product Development
It's all about execution. We've all heard this phrase, but what does it mean? In this case it means that people want to see fully-formed products they can use, not half baked beta products. Creating complete products at each stage of your company's journey satisfies customer expectations and allows your ideas to evolve and change, learning through the challenge of creating real products.

Resources
No matter how many resources you have for a project, here's a simple breakdown: 50% will need to be spent on design production and development. The other 50% will be spent on understanding your audience, telling your story, and making sure your vision is big enough and aligned with the market of users.