Documented and Retained Causal and Action Intelligence

Performance measures reflect the organization’s successes and shortfalls over extended periods of time. Well-maintained metrics include a periodic performance analysis summary capturing underlying drivers and associated follow-on actions. These summaries, however, are typically overwritten with the next analysis rather than being preserved; robbing leaders of critical lessons learned information that could support future performance improvements and more rapid decision-making.[wcm_restrict plans=”41699, 25542, 25653″]

Electrons are cheap… and so is memory

The primary reason for not retaining performance analysis summaries lies with the reporting system’s configuration. Given the relatively low cost of data retention, the only reason for not retaining this information is that the organization’s reporting system, often a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, is not set up to store these write-ups. If this is the case, implementing one of the following methods can serve to capture this data and make it easily available for future recall:

• Upgrade or replace the performance metrics system with one that captures individual performance analysis summaries and follow-on actions
• Modify the data collection system to contain fields specific to the performance analysis summary and associated follow-on actions
• Document the performance analysis summary within the condition reporting system citing associated follow-on actions, if any
• Document the follow-on actions within the condition reporting system identifying the relationship with the specific metric, including its report date
• Capture the performance analysis summary and follow-on actions within the lessons learned system
• Create and retain the each performance metric individually within a filing system that enables document content searching
• Maintain a separate performance analysis summary and follow-on actions file for each metric within a filing system that enables document content searching

Final Thought…

Retaining lessons learned information is not enough. For this information to be of value to the organization, protocols must be in place to drive its use at the appropriate time. Consequently, the organization’s performance assessment and improvement (root/apparent/direct cause analysis, self-assessments, etcetera), strategic analysis, and decision-making processes should direct the use of performance metric summary and follow-on action information.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”41699, 25542, 25653″]

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About the Author

Nathan Ives is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.