For me, it makes sense to think in terms of tanks, with levels, and associated flows.
A quick scan of levels and flow speeds is enough to tell you instantly how things are doing.
There’s no need to look beyond that until you see flow speeds change. And then you should still have time to do something about them.
Here are the ‘tanks’ I would monitor:
Promises made:
- How many Promises have I made?
- How much Capacity does it take to make a Promise?
- How fast am I making them?
- How many Promises have I failed to make?
- How fast am I failing to make them?
Promises kept:
- How many Promises have I kept?
- How much Capacity does it take to keep a Promise?
- How much Money does it bring in?
- How fast am I keeping them?
- How many Promises have I failed to keep?
- How fast am I failing to keep them?
Customer goodwill:
- How much is in the tank?
- How fast is it being topped up?
- How fast is it being drained?
- How soon will it run out?
Team morale:
- How much is in the tank?
- How fast is it being topped up?
- How fast is it being drained?
- How soon will it run out?
Capabilities:
- What Capabilities do I have?
- What Capabilities am I missing?
Capacity:
- How much Capacity is in each Capability tank?
- How fast is it being used?
- How fast is it being topped up?
- How soon will it run out?
Money:
- How much is in the tank?
- How fast is it coming in?
- How fast is it going out?
- How soon will it run out?
Once you have this basic set of information, you can start asking more sophisticated questions, such as how to increase Capacity in a Capability, and how particular ways of doing that (e.g. by training or hiring or outsourcing) might affect other Capacities, Capabilities or Team morale. And how that in turn might affect Promises made, Promises kept, Customer goodwill and of course Money.
None of these things can be looked at in isolation. They are parts of a reasonably complex system – your business system for making and keeping promises to the people you serve. The flows that increase or decrease the levels in these tanks are your business processes.
On the other hand, there are only 7 tanks to watch. That’s manageable and still powerful.
Discipline makes Daring possible.
P.S. There is a reason I’ve put Money last. Because it’s actually just a side-effect of managing the others.
