Does your organization drive on mirror views, dashboards or front window view?

1 - Driving Blind

‘You cannot drive your car using just the rear view mirrors’

Most organizations and their departments that I came across during my advisory had an astounding commonality, they were utilizing reports that fed them with mirror view information and even as still others used dashboards.

A mirror view is a line of sight that shows the reflection and in case of a moving object, it shows events that have already taken place, which is; past information. When an organization chooses to carry out decisions based on the events that have already happened, they do it using a mirror view reports. It is not uncommon to find organizations that follow this approach.  Surprising is, while almost all of these made use of the data that was few week old, some of them were even older.

Past data can be good for “Lessons Learnt” strategy, but devising it as part of everyday culture makes the organization reactive, less forthcoming and unsighted. Agility is impacted and accidents are waiting to happen. The information that is presented can be skewed or as the warning sounds “Objects in the rear view mirror appear closer than they are”.  Too much delving into the past, over a period, will lead to loosing focus on the future.

Few other dangers of analyzing past data

• Its past data! It might not hold relevant
• Wrong side view. Imagine the consequence when a wrong view is presented, the resultant action might be wrong.
• ‘Objects appear closer’ syndrome. This syndrome can lead to wrong analysis of the impact causing anxiety or misjudgment.
• Regular usage of past data leads to “All is well” feeling till a major incident

Then does it make the Mirror View Reporting a no good option? Well no, because you still require to determine what might strike from the rear or when it is safe to change lanes (tactic) or verify what's happening in your back seat (Operations health), but there is a better way to steer your organization to reach its destiny and that is using Front Window Views

Ok, So Dashboards are useful and sometimes better than the Mirror Views, but they are still not effective when it comes to achieving business objectives.

So, what’s in your rear view mirror, if anything, that’s holding you back?

The next article will discuss further on Dashboard and Front Window Views