How are we doing?

Businesses have this posted on comment cards and suggestoin boxes and at the top of online survey pages. 

Most people pay little attention to this unless they had a bad experience. 

How am I doing?

This question is similar. It’s just personal. 

But there is a problem. 

The problem with these questions is not that they’re being asked. The problem is how they’re being asked. Because how anyone or anything is doing is relative to the comaprison point. 

“How are we doing in your view?” is a completely different questions from “How are we doing compated to that guy?”

You can always find someone worse (or better) than you are. That’s a terrible way to measure your progress. The goal is to be better than you were yesterday. Or last month. Or last year or decade. 

I will be much more impressed with “I made a 1% improvement from what I was yesterday” than I will be with “We’re 75% better than that guy.”