Knowing the Score Can Make a Big Difference

In an earlier post, I mentioned a book by John Naisbitt: Mind Set! Reset Your Thinking and See the Future. In reading his book, I recall agreeing wholeheartedly with his love of sports.

At the end of the game, it's absolutely clear who won, who lost and you can look over the boxscore and see how everybody did. This guy got two hits and struck out once. This guy scored a goal and was involved in two penalties. This player had 18 points and 12 rebounds. I apologize if the sports terminology I'm using is not understandable to everyone, but the main point is this: you can tell exactly what happened. There is really not much left to opinion. The big star either came through and scored a lot of points or he didn't.

In a business, one certain way to weaken your chances for expansion and success is to rely solely on opinion. When an employee comes up to the boss and tells her that "Bob isn't really getting his job done" and the boss operates on that information, that is a recipe for disaster. Check out Bob's area very carefully. He may be getting an awful lot done, but perhaps he stepped on a couple of people's toes while doing so. If you manage a business on opinion alone, you can end up getting rid of productive staff and rewarding other staff who are not very productive.

What's the best way to manage WITHOUT relying on opinion? Statistics. Figure out what each position should be producing and then measure that production with a statistic. At the end of every week (or whatever period of time is significant for your business) collect up these statistics. Post them so everyone can see them. And then manage the business on what people are ACTUALLY producing.

Give this a try.

If you'd like some help on managing your business on statistics, email me.