Where the parts come from
The Bet Tree is not a new name for an older system. It keeps one working part from each of nine systems and uses that part in a named place. The rest of each system stays outside this method.
| System | What this method keeps | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Management by objectives | Every number lower down explains its contribution to the aim above | The aim of the cycle |
| Objectives and key results | The aim in words, the result as a number. Separate "we promise" from "we dream" | The aim of the cycle |
| Balanced scorecard | Balance across directions, and a guard against leaning on one side only | The tree |
| Evidence-based management | How many days one check takes | The tree |
| The four disciplines of execution | A leading measure you can predict and manage, plus a meeting and promises | Before and after, the week |
| The entrepreneurial operating system | The step just before the result, and a scorecard that is read before it is discussed | Finding the leading number, the week |
| Theory of constraints | The main number of the month is the bottleneck | Few numbers |
| Accounting by kind of work | Where the team's hours went | Where the week went |
| Amazon's weekly business review | A number that is half ours and half the customer's | One level up |
A metric passport follows the order in Victor Basili, Software Modeling and Measurement: The Goal/Question/Metric Paradigm (1992): aim, then question, then definition and formula. A number without a question is kept "just in case" and does not enter the week.
Other works, for the parts that use them:
- Renkl and Atkinson (2003), on removing support step by step, and Salden and co-authors (2010), on examples and growing skill: the basic level is enough until your own evidence says it is not.
- Ron Kohavi and Alex Deng, guardrail metrics, and Andy Grove, High Output Management: a pair of lines, success and safety, written before the test.
- Eric Ries, The Lean Startup: a confirmation and a refutation are both learning.
- Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow: a threshold written in advance protects you from rewriting the story after you see the number.
- FranklinCovey, The 4 Disciplines of Execution, and Gino Wickman, Traction: the weekly rhythm of promises and a short scorecard.
This page names sources. It does not quote them and it does not add results that are not in those works.