Jeffrey Pfeffer Testifies to Congress About Evidence-Based Practices

Stanford Business School's Jeff Pfeffer and I published a book last year called Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence Based Management.  We made the case that using evidence-based practices in organizations was not only possible, but that some of the most the most effective leaders and organizations were already doing it.  I am pleased to report that Jeff testified to congress this week about the implications of evidence principles for on March 8th the Hearing on Federal Personnel Reform. You can read Jeff's full testimony at our website, www.evidence-basedmanagement.com, where it is the featured article.  I am biased of course, but I think that Jeff does a great job of explaining what evidence-based management is and zeros in on the challenges of implementing pay-for-performance systems (which the Federal government is currently experimenting with and proposing to spread throughout the system). He explains how -- although many private sector companies and their consultants have great faith in individual pay-for-performance schemes -- these systems are typically less effective and have more negative side-effects than is commonly believed.

P.S. Also check out Joe Mello's guest column on The Myth of the Mean. Joe is COO of DaVita, one of the companies that we feature as a model of how to turn evidence-based management practices into action. DaVita runs hundreds of kidney dialysis centers and is the industry leader in both quality of patient care and financial performance.