Choose a number that helps you decide

What we found in the news

The Towns Fund monitoring and evaluation strategy (opens in a new tab), published in December 2021, separates tracking delivery from investigating how a program works. Among its monitoring questions is a useful one for almost any service:

What is and isn’t working well in delivery?

This is a government strategy for investment in places, rather than a care-service study. We are interested in the discipline behind that question: collect information because it can inform a decision, and be clear about what it cannot tell you.

Why this matters to us

An operations report can become a collection of numbers that once seemed useful. Each new project adds a column. Very few columns leave. Someone spends Friday assembling them, and Monday's meeting still depends on a colleague explaining what is happening.

We think a smaller, purposeful set of measures deserves a try. Leaders need to know which promise they are monitoring, what would make them concerned, and what they can do in response. People providing the information deserve to know that too.

A number earns its place when it helps the team see something important and respond with judgment.

Begin with a decision that is coming up

Consider a hypothetical community center deciding whether to add another welcome session. Its monthly attendance total has risen, but that does not answer the question on its own. Existing participants might simply be coming more often. The team might be turning away new enquiries. One session could be full while another has space.

The immediate decision is where to put limited staff time. Useful evidence might include enquiries that could not find a suitable session, actual use of the available places, and what people say about the choices offered.

Write the decision at the top of the working sheet. Then ask which information could change it. If a measure would lead to exactly the same action whatever it showed, consider whether it belongs in this particular discussion. Required reporting can still have a separate purpose.

Pair the count with a question

A record of unfilled places might prompt someone to increase advertising. Before making that choice, ask how the session fits the people it is intended for.

Perhaps the advertised time clashes with a local bus service. Perhaps people want to visit before committing. Perhaps the program no longer interests the participants who helped establish it. None of those explanations can be read confidently from the count.

A brief invitation to explain can make the numerical pattern more useful. Offer a way to respond that does not require attending a committee or completing another long survey. Include people who decided against the service, where an appropriate invitation is possible. Their experience may be absent from the attendance list.

Keep an unanswered question visible as unanswered. An empty space in the report is better than an explanation the team has invented.

Decide when a measure has done its job

A temporary measure can remain temporary. The welcome-session team might collect a small amount of information while testing a change, then decide whether continuing to collect it would help.

Name the person who will review it, the date of that review, and the decision it supports. Check whether gathering the information interrupts the welcome itself. A measurement exercise that makes first visits harder has introduced a cost worth noticing.

Also leave room to stop. A measure may be unreliable, burdensome or unrelated to the original question. Removing it thoughtfully is part of managing the service, rather than a sign that learning has ended.

What this means for the people you serve

People should not have to become data collectors for every organizational question. Explain why you are asking, make participation optional where appropriate, and show what the team considered. Someone who prefers a quieter session has offered useful knowledge even when their preference is shared by only a few people.

The genus connection

Current genus configurations can bring recorded participation, reservations and staff work into a shared operational view, depending on the modules and permissions in use. Those records can support a discussion; they do not establish why a pattern occurred or prove a change improved someone's life.

We start with the organization's question and the information it can responsibly maintain. Explore the partner portal and insights (opens in a new tab) for the kinds of staff workspaces that may support that approach.

One question for your next team meeting

Which number in our regular report has changed a decision recently, and which one needs a clearer purpose?