This was going to be a slam dunk.
There was nothing like it on the market, and HR managers were practically begging for someone to solve the problem.
I was publishing HR resources at the time, and we were on the lookout for fresh, meaningful ideas.
When an author came to us with a bold new concept – an HR Measurement Toolkit – it felt like a breakthrough.
✅ A way for HR teams to finally prove their impact on the bottom line.
✅ A way to show that HR wasn’t just a support function, but a strategic one.
✅ A way to be seen – and treated – as true business partners.
It ticked every box. Our research backed it. The industry called for it. Our target market said they wanted it.
But when we launched? Crickets.
The product flopped.
In fact, it was probably the biggest miss of my career.
And it taught me something I’ve never forgotten: There’s often a wide gap between what people say they want and what they’re actually willing to do.
Accountability sounds great in theory – especially when it’s someone else being asked to be accountable.
But actually having your work (and worth) measured? That’s personal. That’s exposing😟.
And that’s particularly dangerous for a profession that (still) has to fight to be respected.
Three lessons from this:
- Beware the say vs. do gap.
- When someone bemoans a lack of analytics to prove their value, consider they may be complicit in its absence.
- Measuring something might be functionally straightforward, but psychologically complex.
If we want people to embrace measurement, we can’t just build the tools – we have to build the conditions that make it feel safe to use them.
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