A Business Lesson We Can Learn from the Three Cups of Tea Controversy
I was introduced to Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea by way of my wife, who recommended the book and its inspirational story of how the author leveraged being kidnapped in the mountains of Afghanistan into a calling to build schools for children in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Of course, the book and Mortenson have fallen on controversy recently, as 60 Minutes has exposed the world to all sorts of criticism. The story behind the book -- and the charity work done in its name -- might be less than it seems.
One key criticism is that over 20% of the 141 schools that Mortenson's charity claims to have built are either "half empty, built by someone else, or not receiving any support at all."
If true, that's a damning criticism, when you consider that Mortenson puts so much emphasis on how many schools have been built. And therein lies an important lesson for your business.
Specifically, even if Mortenson's heart was in the right place, it's clear that he has been measuring the wrong things. You, or Mortenson, might argue that it's not his fault if the local village doesn't take advantage of the facility after it's completed. Or that it's just too hard to staff and maintain the school, so it's not fair to measure those kinds of metrics.
Well, the reality is it doesn't matter how many schools you build if they go empty after the ribbon is cut, and consequently the meaningful metric is the school utilization rate, or perhaps the literacy rising rate of girls in these remote villages.
Consider this when you build your own key performance indicators (KPIs) for your own businesses projects. Are you metaphorically measuring the number of schools you've built -- because it's easy to measure, or generates an encouraging number? Or are you measuring the hard stuff -- the stuff that really demonstrates how effective your project actually is? Maybe it's time to take a hard look in your organization for your own Three Cups of Tea.
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