The Metrics Fallacy: Why Our Best Intentions Fail in a Complex World

From the catastrophic quality issues at Boeing to the spread of misinformation on social media, we are witnessing a powerful and dangerous pattern: initiatives designed to improve complex systems are being derailed by an over-reliance on metrics.
This talk exposes the fundamental flaw in our approach, revealing how we apply tools from a "complicated" world to problems that are inherently "complex."
We'll explore why metrics only give us a limited glimpse of reality and can lead to unintended, and often catastrophic, consequences.
Drawing on frameworks like the Stacey Matrix, this session will challenge the notion that "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it" and propose a new path forward: one that prioritises intuitive "sense-making," human collaboration, and adaptive learning, embracing innovative concepts such as flow and trust over the tyranny of numbers.

Speaker: Erik de Bos is an Agile Leader, Scrum Master, and Agile Coach with over a decade of experience helping organisations improve their effectiveness, foster employee well-being, and adapt to a complex world. He is an expert in enhancing team performance, fostering continuous learning, and aligning daily work with strategic goals.
Erik shares insights through talks and articles and has developed several tools, including "The Purpose & Roadmap Template" and "The Sprint Goal Template," and co-created "James the Evil Stakeholder," a card game designed to help teams learn how to deal with difficult stakeholders.
Erik also enjoys jogging, cooking, photography, and music, hobbies he sees as a way to express creativity and find flow.