Do you have the facts?

Recently I had been pushing one of my clients to improve the amount of information they had available to them.

In many businesses there can be too much information, stuff that gets produced that no one uses.

In other businesses there is the opposite problem, not enough information being produced to make meaningful decisions from.

Eventually my client made the following statement:

"It's the difference between thinking that you know and knowing that you know."

And getting this level of information right is important.

If you spend too much time gathering information you might be sacrificing more important tasks.

If you are trying to join the dots together in your thinking (and the dots are really far apart!) then you might be wasting effort by making inaccurate guesses and heading down the wrong path.

Thankfully, my client found their equilibrium point and determined an appropriate level of management information for their business. Their decision making improved, and the management of their processes was reinforced.

So, I would propose a slight extension to what my client said:

"It's the difference between thinking that you know and knowing that know, without getting completely lost in the information."

What's the balance like in your business?

Giles

Giles Johnston
Author of Business Process Re-Engineering and creator of the 'Making It Happen' continuous improvement strategies online course.

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