Are Your Metrics Helping or Hurting? Lessons from the Calorie
Have you ever counted calories? Maybe you’ve tracked them for fitness goals or glanced at food labels, assuming they were designed to help with portion control. But that’s not why the calorie was created.
In the late 19th century, the calorie was introduced as a way to measure the energy value of food. The goal wasn’t to restrict intake but to ensure people—especially workers, soldiers, and those on tight budgets—were getting enough energy to sustain their demanding lives. It was crucial to know that a bowl of beans provided far more energy than a plate of broccoli, not because one was healthier than the other, but because one would fuel a hard day’s work while the other wouldn’t.
Over time, that focus shifted. Instead of being used to help people get enough sustenance, the calorie became associated with restriction, dieting, and self-control. The metric itself didn’t change, but how it was interpreted did.
That same shift happens in organizations. A metric is introduced to serve a purpose, but as time goes on, its meaning can drift. A measurement meant to guide decision-making can easily become an end in itself.
Understanding the Limits of Metrics
Metrics are valuable when used in context. They help teams track progress, detect trends, and make informed decisions. But when a metric becomes the primary focus, it can lead to unintended consequences.
A common example in agile organizations is velocity. It was originally intended as a team-level planning tool to help with forecasting. But over time, it has often been misused in ways that don’t align with its original intent:
Comparing velocity across teams, even though team compositions, work types, and estimation methods vary.
Treating velocity as a performance metric, which encourages teams to game the system rather than focus on delivering real value.
Using velocity as a goal instead of an indicator, leading to inflated estimates and prioritizing completion of work over delivering meaningful outcomes.
The lesson here isn’t about whether velocity is a good or bad metric. It’s that no metric exists in isolation—what matters is how it’s used.
Fun Fact: Calories on Labels Are Not Exact
Most people assume calorie counts on food labels are precise, but they can legally be off by as much as 20%. A snack labeled as 200 calories might actually contain 240 or just 160. This isn’t due to deception; it’s because calculating calories isn’t an exact science. Factors like food preparation, digestion, and individual metabolism all influence how many calories the body actually absorbs.
This is a useful reminder for organizations. A metric is never the complete picture—it’s an approximation that needs interpretation. Whether it’s calorie counts, velocity, or financial KPIs, treating a number as absolute truth can lead to flawed decision-making.
Measuring What Matters in Agile Kata
Agile Kata provides a structured approach to continuous improvement, and part of that is ensuring that metrics serve their purpose rather than becoming rigid targets. Organizations often default to tracking what is easiest to measure rather than what truly reflects improvement.
Agile Kata helps teams and leaders ask the right questions:
What challenge are we solving? Before selecting a metric, define the real business problem at hand.
What does success look like? A metric should indicate progress toward an outcome, not just track activity.
How will we know we are improving? Metrics should help teams inspect and adapt, not serve as static benchmarks.
Are we learning from the data? If a metric isn’t driving better decisions, it’s time to reconsider its value.
By treating metrics as tools for insight rather than absolute measures of success, organizations can ensure they stay focused on outcomes that matter.
Final Reflection
Metrics are useful, but they should never become the goal. Just as calories were originally about ensuring enough energy before shifting toward restriction, many business metrics start with good intentions but take on unintended meanings over time.
Organizations that succeed are the ones that step back and ask: Are we measuring what truly matters, or have we lost sight of the real goal?
References
Calorie Label Accuracy: The FDA allows a tolerance of up to 20% for the accuracy of calorie counts on nutrition labels. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK235567/
Origin of the Calorie: The term "calorie" was introduced by Nicolas Clément in the 19th century as a unit of heat energy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Clément
Wilbur Atwater's Contribution: Wilbur Olin Atwater played a significant role in introducing the concept of the calorie to the American public, emphasizing its importance in measuring food energy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilbur_Olin_Atwater and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie
