In these crazy-busy times, it is easy to develop a knee-jerk approach to decision-making. So what can you do to make it easier to ‘hop in the helicopter’ to gain a more informative perspective?
Hop in the helicopter
‘Hopping in the helicopter’ means getting above the noise and busyness to gain a clearer understanding of an issue. Being in the helicopter enables you to see things you couldn’t when in the thick of things. From the helicopter you can see patterns, opportunities and even the significance of the issue. So how can you make it easier to hop in the helicopter?
Track your KPIs over time
Assessing a single measure in time gives no indication of the direction it is taking.
It is essential to capture and compare your KPIs over a substantial period of time, rather than looking at individual snapshots.
Performance is variable over short periods of time, but when tracked over longer periods, you can spot trends and gain a better insight as to whether things are improving, deteriorating or stagnating.
Spot the trends
By measuring your KPIs over longer timeframes you will start to see trends within your business.
For example, if you are tracking a measure monthly, use a graph format that displays the last 12 months. And if your work is seasonal, add another line on your graph that displays the previous year’s results. This way you can easily see how your current performance compares to previous performance. It is not unusual for our Clients to track their key measures over 3 cycles to gain insight into their performance.
Make it easy to ‘hop in the helicopter’ with a simple KPI dashboard
Set up a simple dashboard of your key measures, where you track them over long periods of time.
Graphs are an easy way to see how something is trending. Excel is a simple way to do this. Contact us if you would like us to email you one of our KPI dashboard templates.
Having facts on how things are trending, will make it easier to ‘hop in the helicopter’ to get a useful perspective, from which to make decisions.
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