Thanks everybody for reading my blog here in 2021. And for listening to podcasts… oh so many podcasts. I released 24 “Lean Blog Interviews” podcasts, up from 21 the same period last year (and two data points are not a…
tl;dr: Red/green metrics encourage snap judgments and overreaction. Process Behavior Charts provide context, separate signal from noise, and help leaders make better decisions that reduce wasted effort and drive real improvement. Thanks again to Prof. Eric Olsen for inviting me…
tl;dr: Oscars ratings keep hitting “all-time lows,” but those single-year drops don’t mean much without context. A Process Behavior Chart shows the real story: a long-term downward shift in viewership, with recent years signaling another significant change. The useful question…
Mark’s note: Today’s post is something I asked my friend Brian Buck to write up here. He wrote one previous guest post back in 2010. For context, Brian had shared the following on LinkedIn: I shared an example from some…
I’d like to thank my friend Skip Steward for inviting me to be a guest on his podcast called “Connecting the Dots.” The podcast is one of their initiatives that’s intended to get the word out (internally and publicly) about…
Today is, of course, election day in the United States. Here is a post with some random thoughts. I was fortunate in that I was able to vote in person, early in Texas last month (that is my permanent home…
I say it a lot, but two data points are not a trend. I didn’t invent that idea, of course, but I’ve tried to help leaders and organizations stop reacting to every up-and-down in a metric through the methods I…
Thanks everybody for reading my blog here in 2020. I released 21 “Lean Blog Interviews” podcasts, up from 14 the same period last year (and two data points are not a trend!). I was also happy to continue the “Lean…
Year-to-date metrics often mislead leaders by hiding meaningful system improvements and exaggerating routine variation–making Process Behavior Charts a far better way to evaluate performance. Why Year-to-Date Numbers Hide What’s Really Happening in the System In my travels, I see many…
Process behavior charts offer a way to move beyond emojis, colors, and single data points by showing whether a metric is actually changing or merely fluctuating. This post explores why many common visual scorecards unintentionally drive overreaction — and how…
TL;DR: Year-over-year charts look analytical, but they often hide routine variation and invite overreaction. Process Behavior Charts make real improvement–and real risk–visible without guesswork. The main subject of my book Measures of Success is “Process Behavior Charts” (see more in…
Joining me for episode #354 of the podcast is Kim Hollon, the CEO and President of Signature Healthcare, based in Brockton, Massachusetts. I first met Kim about a decade ago and, as we discover during the podcast discussion, one of…
