Imagine arriving late to a sporting event to see that there is no score on display. Everyone around you is confused as to the actual current score. Or imagine a sign telling you that the score will be posted as soon as possible after the game finishes. Would you lose interest in the game? Would the players have the same motivation?
Similarly, it is often interesting to ask staff in a business how they did the previous week. The answer may be as general as ‘pretty good’ or ‘not a great week’.
How to Track Performance
However, delve a little deeper to ask for some evidence and the answers may be quite vague – ‘well, we had no major issues’ or ‘things were a bit slow’. How well is performance tracked across your business? Are the relevant things tracked – those most important to the customers of the business or section?
In sport, performance tracking is essential to driving improvement. For instance, here are some statistics from an English premiership season. English premiership teams playing West Bromwich Albion should know that this team score more goals from set plays than open play. In contrast, one of the top teams, Manchester United, score relatively few goals from set plays. Could this drive significant improvement actions?
Don’t Miss an Opportunity
Knowing what to measure in each area of every business is essential. It is an opportunity missed if everyone doesn’t know the score. Continuous improvement is supported by facts and good data collection and review.
You may be interested in applying Lean thinking to your business and putting these ideas into place?
The Lean Business programme will run this Autumn at various locations in Ireland.
We hope you enjoyed reading about “Does Everyone Know the Score”. You may also be interested in reading about our insights on the Leader’s Role in Building a Lean Culture and Is Lean Thinking for Everyone? All our blogs are available to read here. Please connect with us on Linkedin and Twitter.