More or Better?

The story: They agreed to boost productivity. Two weeks later one had a towering stack of completed tasks — volume was up. The other had one piece of work, done exceptionally well. Same word, two completely different definitions of success. Neither was wrong by their own definition. Both were surprised by the other's.

What it means for organisations: The most dangerous misalignments aren't about what to do — they're about how to measure success. Two people can execute perfectly against completely different definitions of the same goal and neither will realise it until the results land.