I just saw a Microsoft Office Dashboard that gives a productivity score based on how people use Microsoft products. The Dashboard provides insights into:

• how many people are using one or more of the Microsoft communication tools
• Meetings that follow best practices for meetings (on Microsoft products, of course)
• How much people are collaborating or contributing to shared documents in Microsoft products
• How many people are using Microsoft products on mobile platforms

I could write a post for each measure and why it does not measure productivity. Suffice it to say, though, not one of their measures will tell you how productive people are. In fact, if you measure productivity based on these measures, you will likely find people gaming the numbers to satisfy you.

Want to help people be more productive? Ask people to come up with ways to do their work without having to work so hard. After all, that’s what it means to be more productive.

No Dashboard can replace good leadership.

You’ve got this.