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Predictability - Not Integrity
October 19, 2009 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Musings
Predictability - Not Integrity
By Christopher Butcher
How often have you talked to an organization that cited as one of its core values as “integrity”? I’d like to do a statistical study to see how many organizations adopt that as a core value. Why do I like predictability better than integrity? Let me count the ways:
- Integrity is impossible to prove or disprove, whereas predictability is something that can be measured and improved on.
- Integrity is a value-laden claim. Challenging someone’s integrity is a personal assault, whereas challenging someone’s delivery is factual, data-oriented, and solveable.
- Any claim to integrity is inherently hollow. We don’t trust people because they say they value integrity. We trust people because they do what they say they are going to do.
- When predictability fails, everything else comes under assault: integrity, competency, realism, etc. If we strive for predictability, everything else falls into line.
So how do we evaluate predictability? How do we promise predictability? How do we measure it?
The bottom line? How does predictability affect me? As with most situations, the questions are more important than the answers. If we ask the right questions, we will reach for the right questions. So stay tuned for more thoughts on how to be more predictable, how to manage surprises, and how to constantly improve on keeping our promises.
What do you think?
Christopher Butcher is Principal and Chief Technology Officer at Heuristic Solutions, a software consulting firm in Arlington, Virginia. In addition to leading the technical direction at Heuristic Solutions, Mr. Butcher serves as a virtual chief information officer (vCIO) at a variety of organizations. His focus has been on aligning information technology projects to the strategic objectives of organizations. Mr. Butcher maintains a professional blog about information technology governance, the CIO Code.
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3 people have left comments
… And from my experience, integrity can be faked. IMO, anything that can’t be measured is worthless.
Excellent stuff.
Chris,
When it comes to defining integrity at the organizational level, wouldn’t it actually be similar to predictability? I view organizational integrity as “doing what you say you were going to do…” as an organization. Other business need to count on your business, and therefore your organization should honor the commitments that it makes.