Editorial note: This article is a fictional reconstruction of situations businesses may face. Its purpose is to inform and raise awareness about possible risks and responses. People, events, data and outcomes should not be interpreted as actual cases, verified facts or results achieved by LC. Each organization needs its own assessment.
Every Friday, Diego presents a twenty-page report. It has activity charts, percentages and colors. Then someone asks which deliveries will be late on Monday. Nobody can answer. Imagine this small-business team: it has data, but the data is disconnected from the decisions ahead.
The report shows activity, not what needs attention
In this story, the team counts completed tasks. A delivery can have many finished tasks and still be held up by one approval. Diego suggests a different starting question: what do we need to know to organize next week?
For this particular problem, they choose three signals: delivery-date adherence, rework and open commitments without a next step. These are not universal KPIs for every small business. They are an example for a team managing deliveries.
Three signals answer three different questions
First: did we deliver what we promised on time? The team could divide deliveries completed by the agreed date by deliveries due that period. They would first define completion and record original deadlines and subsequent changes.
Second: was the work complete? They would distinguish corrections to unfinished work from new customer requests. Third: where did coordination stall? An open commitment without an owner or next date deserves attention even before it becomes overdue.
The average looks fine, but a customer is still waiting
Suppose most deliveries are straightforward while the complex ones regularly stall. A single average could hide that difference. Diego would separate results by type of work and show how many cases each group contains.
With a small sample, he would avoid treating every change as a trend. The dashboard should prompt questions about causes, capacity and priorities, not turn one number into a judgment about an individual.
End the meeting with more than “we must improve”
At the next meeting in our scenario, the team would select one blockage, an owner and a review date. For instance, confirming information midweek for Friday’s deliveries. The next review would check whether that agreement happened and what changed.
Try the same approach with one process. Write down the decision you need to make, then the information that would clarify it. If a metric never changes a conversation or action, it may not be the first one you need.
A useful dashboard connects each signal with a question, an owner and a decision.
BRING IT TO YOUR BUSINESS
Three questions to get started.
- Which decision should our dashboard support?
- Would two people calculate each metric using the same rule?
- What specific action follows the review?
Does this sound like a challenge in your business? We can start with a conversation.
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