False Proxies

Seth Godin recently posted on LinkedIn a great conversation with Matt Mullenweg about distribuited work and culture at Automattic.

At the beginning of the conversation, Matt explains the concept of False Proxies:

Another way to put this is, as Charlie Munger would say, the map is not the territory. So, this [false proxy] is something that appears to be what you’re looking for, but isn’t really.

For example, someone appears to be in the office early every day, appears to be looking at their computer a lot, appears to stay late every day, or asks a lot of questions in meetings. They could appear to be contribuiting to what matters to your customers, but those are all false proxies to what truly is what you are trying to accomplish or the goal.

Worth thinking what false proxies we have fallen pray of in our organizations.