Question: What do you do when dealing with a dysfunctional organization?
Answer: Question everything. And then measure everything.
Anyone who has succeeded in an assignment to revitalize a dysfunctional organization knows the importance of these steps. And anyone who has succeeded in such an assignment will recognize the reason for Elon Musk’s e-mail to workers within the federal bureaucracies. And any of those who have even attempted to rescue such organizations will recognize the motives behind those who get outraged over any questions, let alone the development of metrics.
To show just how not novel this approach is, it got satirical treatment in the seminal 1999 film Office Space with The Bobs (via my good friend Cranky T-Rex, who convinced me to watch the film):
Private-sector corporations have…
