Are You Measuring With the Right Tool?

I was trying to help my daughter (in 8th grade) with her math homework. She was tasked with finding the area of an octagon. While my calculus skills leave a lot to be desired, I won our school board's math competition in the 8th grade. So I was quite confident I could help. But when I looked at the worksheet my daughter produced, I struggled.

How do you find the area of an octagon? I couldn't remember, but I reasoned that she should be able to break it up into equally sized triangles, find the area of one triangle, and then multiply. There was just one problem, we were missing the measurements of those triangles that would allow us to calculate their area.

If you are strong in math, you know I was wrong. It turns out there is a relatively simple equation specifically for the octagon and all that was required to solve it, was the length of one side - a measurement already provided in the problem.

This reminded me that when it comes to measuring anything, ensuring you are using the right measurement tool is critical. Yet, when it comes to measuring success in 2022, I would suggest most of us are getting the wrong answer because we are using the wrong formula.

Everywhere in our culture, we are told that the formula to measure our success is something like income + status = success. Just take a look here or any other social media platform and you'll see the following used as proof of success:

• "2nd quarter profits are up 30%"
• "Yeah! I got a promotion."
• "We at ABC Inc. outsold our rivals by 50% last year!"

To be sure, these are all good things, but are they the best measurement tool for success?

• What if 2nd quarter profits are up 30% because the company laid off hundreds of front-line staff - staff who were already struggling to feed their families.
• What if that promotion means that person who will now only see their family two weekends a month?
• What if outselling the rival by 50% was only achieved because the rival was bought out by a large conglomerate who will no doubt buy you out next?

Success is what we all strive for, but in 2022 hopefully, we have a better grasp of how to measure our success in ways that are truly reflective of our values.