A Dash of Data
Building a Performance Dashboard
In my last article in this introductory series, Look Here, I made the case for how awful we often are at truly understanding what it is that’s going inside of us. Our perceptions are fundamentally skewed and we are all prone to all kinds of biases that cause us to miss signals that provide information about how it is we’re really doing. The “Check Engine Light” may have been on for days, weeks, or months and gone totally unnoticed or just simply ignored for fear of seeing the monster under the bed. To get better information about what’s going on under the hood it’s helpful to have a place where relatively objective data can be placed to give good information to you, the driver, so you can know how well things are working and if a potential problem is arising. That’s exactly what a dashboard does in your car and that’s exactly what we’ll use it for; knowing what’s going in with your machine.
Dashboards, originally for catching dirt that horses kick up onto carriages (dashes) have become places where important information is collected and displayed. Whether behind the steering wheel of your car or on your smartphone a dashboard helps you see concise representations of the most important information you need to see how you’re performing and where the needle needs to get moved most. Dashboards have indicators that show acute performance, like a speedometer, but they also get your attention when something might be going wrong. One of our goals for the Check Engine Light Substack is to perpetually examine what indicators should go on a Performance Longevity Dashboard. What technologies, protocols, techniques, and awarenesses can we use and develop to become more aware of how well we are really doing. This way we can do a better job of keeping this miraculous machine of our running in the best possible shape and have an honest conversation with ourselves about the cost of the way we drive.
In the age of information we have a nearly endless stream of data smashing into our brains non-stop. Arguably, too much for any person to handle. Hence, a dashboard to streamline things. But what should we put on there? There’s certainly no shortage of influencers (isn’t it funny how close that word is to influenza? Probably just a coincidence.) telling you what they think you should be paying attention to. What is more important than having another random bag of metrics thrown at you is to first have a basic line of critical thinking so you can evaluate things for yourself. When it’s time to pick indicators to put on your dashboard there are three functions that any to be included should serve.
Clarify problems and identify targets. If I ask you to lunch and you agree what’s your first question: where are we going? It’s had to get good directions if you’re not sure where it is you’re going and what obstacles may be in the way.
Predict outcomes. If this, then that. Good indicators can help us look out the windshield and see what’s coming. These leading indicators don’t predict the future with certainty but by connecting our behavior with outcomes over time we can improve our ability to move towards what we want and avoid what we don’t.
Determine impact. Good indicators show us if we’ve made a change where it matters. These lagging indicators are like the rear view mirror. They let us know what just happened and did we arrive at the right place?
This cycle of investigation is a perpetual one as is evaluation of what indicators you decide to put on your dashboard. Whatever indicators you use make sure you understand what it is that you’re trying to measure and why. As you continue this process be sure to revisit #1 on the list. Often we rush to blame tools, protocols, and techniques for failing to work when many times the user (fallible us) failed to identify the problem correctly in the first place.
The level of sophistication of your own performance longevity dashboard will certainly depend on your level of expertise, experience, and attention. With that said fancy and technological does not always trump the use of consistent and well attended indicators. The most important things is to find indicators that make sense to you and start paying attention to them. In the next article in this series we’ll explore how we can begin to delineate categories from which to draw our indicators.
Thanks for reading,
Rob