Responsible leadership in
the age of numbers
‘Numbers saturate the news,
politics, and life.
For good or ill, they are today’s
preeminent public language
– and those who speak it rule.’
M. Blastland and A. Dilnot,
The Numbers Game, 2009
It all starts with…
The forest and the tree
We choose what to see
The audit explosion
Principa
l
Agent
The age of numbers
Googling GDP
5mio
21mio
27mio
29mio
36mio
37mio
799mio
74mio
165mio
Poor Europe…
What we measure
affects what we do
Assessment
s
Incentives
Crowding out
Perverse
incentives
Behaviour
When money grows on trees…
…trees are worth
nothing if they
can’t generate
money
Responsible leadership in the age of numbers
 ‘The tyranny of the prevailing system of
management’
 Looking at the ‘bigger picture’
 From sectoral to holistic assessment
 Assessing success in the ‘long term’
 Rethink rankings: what do they really tell us?
 Move beyond (or away from) checklists?
 ‘Big data’ as a double-edge sword?
 Reframing ‘value’: better numbers or no numbers!
Reclaiming our voice
THANKS!
[email protected]
Centre for the Study of
Governance Innovation
www.
governanceinnovation.
org
My blog:
www.globalreboot.org
Twitter:
@globalreboot