Imagine you and a few of your co-workers are sitting in a conference room waiting for your boss to arrive so that your meeting can start. Located on the far wall is a professional dartboard with four feathered darts stuck to the black and yellow cork target. It's been part of the decor for a number of years and never used. It's really never stuck out so much as today. You've been anxiously waiting now for 20 minutes and the questions loom - is he going to show up? How long are we going to wait before leaving? Bored as is everyone, you take the initiative to approach the now very obvious and tempting dartboard and offer a somewhat faint-hearted challenge to anyone willing to be your "partner in crime."
One by one your co-workers slowly rise to approach the board and ask to hold and feel the feathered miniature spear. Each one while holding the dart is thinking the same thoughts as you. The thought of taking up a "challenge" is tempting. Questions quickly race through everyone's mind. Will the boss come in and catch us in the act? What if we missed the board and put a hole in the wallpaper? Could we get away with one short game or maybe a quick challenge to see who could get closer to the bulls eye? Hearts are beating a little faster, a decision has to be made - and soon.
Just then, the conference room doorknob turns and the door swings open. Entering is your boss. The momentary exhilaration experienced a moment before in anticipation of showing off your skills at being better than anyone in the room immediately disappears. Gone for now is the thought of holding court over your co-workers and being crowned the unofficial "king of the dart board."
Now, granted this scenario probably would never happen. However, the thought of seeing how good you are at performing even an insignificant task as throwing a dart, can sometimes be very motivating to you.
The reasons for your motivation are simple and at the same time profound. All of us at the same time or another have been and continue to be motivated by measurement and feedback. Measurement plays a key role in our every day lives, at work as well as at home with our recreational time.
Everyone both consciously and sub-consciously uses measurement everyday. Some days we are exposed to what might seem like an avalanche of data; some important, some not. Everything from cycle times to quality yields, stock market reports to sports box scores. Something as simple as a glance at a clock or gas gauge, a look at our bank statement or checking the stock market report provides us with valuable information that affects our decision-making and behavior. We see the data, select what's important to us and analyze it; sometimes in milliseconds, sometimes in hours and either store it in our brain for future use or cause us to act.
