Photo by Flickr user denverjeffrey, licensed under Creative Commons: http://bit.ly/rS7TC5
The measurement conundrum of identifying the most credible ways to quantify success is not unique to the PR profession. I was reminded of that this weekend when I read a post on the New York Times N.F.L. blog about Denver Broncos player Tim Tebow and the relatively new ESPN Total QBR. No need to get into specifics, but ESPN put a lot of time and thought into developing the Total QBR and there has been some debate about Tebow’s rating. While Tebow’s playing style and talents have been criticized by purists, as of this past Sunday, his record was pretty good (5-1). Yet his Total QBR is among the lowest of qualifying quarterbacks (31st, QBR 34.6).
I won’t pretend to know enough about football to debate the merits of the ESPN system versus looking at a quarterback’s ability to lead his teams to wins. But this situation did remind me of the value of questioning systems that we use every day to identify influencers, measure engagement and define success. We should commit to identifying and analyzing the “Tebow” cases that emerge within our own systems, as well as the underlying assumptions upon which we base those systems. It is only through identifying and analyzing these outlier cases that we can understand areas where our evaluation criteria and tools can be improved upon. Lest we misread some of our own wins as unsuccessful, or vice versa – because the scoreboard never lies.
P.S. Tebow did it again this weekend, making his record 6-1.