2026-06-29
Use field reports for management decisions: make facts the material for decision-making
Management decisions drift from the field's reality because raw facts don't reach the top. The flow for turning the field's facts accumulated in reports into material for management decision-making.
Why decisions drift from the field
The classic way management decisions drift from the field's sense is that information gets over-summarized on the way up and the raw reality disappears. When only numbers remain in the end, the 'why it happened' behind them is invisible and the measures tend to miss.
Reports are primary information before processing
The field's P, D, C and A are primary information not yet summarized. Each is small, but read together as a trend they reveal a field reality that numbers don't show. The report is a valuable source where the facts remain before processing.
Raise trends by week and by department
Rather than sending individual reports straight to management, bundle them into trends by week and by department. By tidying the grain, management receives not individual task reports but trends of what's happening in the field, in a form usable for decisions.
It coexists with a minimal-retention design
Using the field's facts for decisions and not hoarding data can coexist. Keep long-term storage of the source data in the customer's own Drive and limit our server's retention to at most 24 hours. Grasp trends by reading the facts accumulated on the customer's side, so it works without the server hoarding logs. A design that uses facts and one that doesn't hoard are not in conflict.
A tool for a culture of improvement and fair evaluation that implements these ideas.