Bill Canady argues reports should translate data into actionable improvements, not just measurements. He champions the 80/20 principle to identify the few high-impact actions that drive real change. His rule: if you want tomorrow different from today, do something different today.
I thought we'd take some time to talk about measuring only to improve. There are the basic data required to understand most things, especially in business. The problem with a great many reports, however, is that they fail to go beyond the measurement. To be useful, a report must begin with the data, the objective measurement, but must then conclude by applying those measurements, the data, to improvement. If most reports had their objective transforming data into improvement, very few people would complain about being buried under too many reports. In fact, The majority would clamor for more. That's why I love the 80/20 principle and want everyone to share my love for it. 80/20 is all about turning data into improvement. So I'm going to repeat my simple rule for ensuring continuous improvement. If you want tomorrow to be different from today, do something different today. The question is, what should that something be? The answer is found by applying 80/20. It shows you precisely what to do different.
