Data Gathering

I worked with a guy one time that ran operations for a phone company. He was actually trained as a surveyor. You know, theodolite, staff (which is like a big ruler you stand on its end), dirt…

How was he qualified to do that job?

It’s a great strategy in squash to get your opponent to chase the ball. Why not get your staff to chase your data? [source: www.tenor.com]

He was actually very good at what he did, because there was so much going on, in so many different types of technical specialities, the core challenge was to gather a view of how everything was going. From real time network management to maintenance and improvement contracts.

No one could have been technically trained to understand in detail what was going on from civil construction work, to building goers, to developing software to manage all of this.

Dashboards are a key tool, in the Fix This Next methodology. As you build and grow your business, you can add more to your dashboards according to what you need to see at the time.

The key was to build the provision of data into the vendor’s contracts. So vendors were compelled to report on themselves. This is very difficult to add in after the contract is negotiated and signed. Do it up front.

It’s the same with your staff.

If you want to get control of your business, you need your staff to chase the data you need and have them give it to you. ‘Bake It In’ to their job descriptions. Have them agree when they sign up with you. People will know they have this as part of their job AND that they will be watched closely. Poor performers will think twice about coming to work for you.

The data may be as simple as a checklist to open your store, an inventory of what’s need to order or a weekly check of stationery or marketing collateral - big or small all of this needs to get done. And if you want to ‘make your self redundant’ it’s got to be done by your team.

Like a great squash player, just stand there and have your team do it for you. You will NOT have enough time to gather all the info you need yourself.

Knowledge is power. Your business will not run itself. make sure you stand a chance of knowing what is going on. Get that data collected :)