Productivity. What is it? Can it be measured? Should we bother?

See more

Think of an event. The event could be anything, whether desirable or undesirable. An A&E arrival, an earthquake, a handbag sale, a property viewing, a virus infection, a death. When did that event last happen? And is the time since that event happened typical, predictable or exceptional? Asking these questions… See more

Consider the gender composition of the Board of Directors at 5 companies. Which company was the least fair when it appointed its 8 board members?             This question echoes familiar claims about the gender balance of leadership teams in companies. Diversity of other forms too.… See more

We learn by seeking causal explanations for things. If we can reliably attribute effects to causes we can learn how to get more positive effects and fewer negative ones.

But what if we’re not as good at causal attribution as we might hope? See more

Is better Management Information Mission: Impossible? To answer this question we really need to clarify the meaning of ‘Management’. The word ‘Management’ could mean a role, a set of behaviours, a process, a service. Its efforts could act to control, to direct resources, people, time, materials, money. The concept of… See more

We are bombarded daily by claims about the world. Politics, health, activism, advertising on every media channel. Sometimes claims are dramatic and attention-grabbing. Some are deliberately adversarial and inflammatory. Others have serious research behind them. Which should we pay attention to?

See more

Our chimp-brains may be wired for intuition and action but a causal model helps us listen to the language of change: variables.
See more

The terms ‘leading’ & ‘lagging’ are often used in relation to performance indicators. Confusingly, indicators can be leading and lagging at the same time. How can that be?
See more

Have you ever played Dobble? Its a brilliant game; infuriating at times but fun. It turns out we can learn a lot from Dobble about how to make faster decisions using charts. See more

Could something as simple as the charts we use affect the decisions we make? Yes, according to our Visual Signals survey research. See more

I love the comments I get from people who see a Causal Decision Canvas for the first time.
Once they get to grips with the cause-effect concept they start exploring the Canvas. They’re drawn into the story of the whole system, the dynamic structure, the feedback loops. See more

‘Transformation’ must be near the top of the list of the most over-used business language. It sounds so grandiose and yet has no universal meaning. See more

Yes, measurement is vital for reducing uncertainty and monitoring improvement but its easy to get wrong.

Watch out for these traps and avoid the dark side of KPI dysfunction … See more

How visual analytics from Measureology and the Vanguard Method for service improvement are a powerful combination.  See more

Should a person be rewarded or punished for a random event? I bet most people would say “No” and yet organisations do it routinely with their KPIs.
See more

When an IT function set out to transform itself from an ugly duckling into a swan it wanted to make its ‘Silent IT’ strategy visible to the business.
See more

Why would software developers think that business leaders want a dashboard like the one on their racing car, speedboat, aeroplane or moped? See more

Stephen Few is respected for his unflinching critique of poor dashboard design and he inspired me to look at dashboards through a different lens.
See more

I was very proud to present my Subsidiarity Scoreboard work at the ECR Group Study Week in Krakow, Poland. I was inspired by the people I met, especially those MEPs who are so passionate about their work and their dedicated policy advisers. I’m fascinated by the tension between ideological belief and evidence, claim and fact… See more

Everyone has something they call a dashboard don’t they? As long as there’s a display full of pretty traffic lights and speedometers then the dashboard box is ticked. Or is it? See more

Client:                        BRAND

Company Type:       Reputation Management Consultancy

To understand weaknesses within the business and introduce time management performance measures.

See more

Client: NEW DIRECTION – The Foundation for European Reform

Company Type: Non-profit Think Tank

To develop ideas for a Scorecard for measuring the local value of EU law.

See more

Never mind about Digital Strategy or Skills Gaps or Cybercrime or C-level Influence. My favourite statistic in the CIO Survey from Harvey Nash & KPMG is that 77% of CIOs believe they are performing in the top 20% of their peer group. See more

Ask a psychologist or a Bayesian statistician and they will tell you that risk is subjective. The chance of a big bad thing happening is seen through the lens of the individual, fashioned from their personal experiences and lodged in their mental models. See more

A common media topic over the winter months is the increased pressure on the NHS coupled with the snappily-named ‘Bed-Blocking’; patients who are well enough to leave hospital but are still occupying a bed. We might see this attributed to a ‘crumbling adult care system’ caused by ‘sweeping cuts to local… See more

The UK Department for Communities and Local Government publishes a statistical count of the number of caravans on both authorised and unauthorised traveller sites across England. The count takes place every January and July and includes both ethnic Gypsies and Travellers and non-traditional travellers. This visual storyboard shows how this… See more

A visualisation showing the Measureology research journey in book titles, pages and year of publication.   See more

How do candidates feel about being ignored and rejected? Far from ambivalent.

A new visual insight from Measureology charts the effect of delaying candidate rejection – both explicit and implicit – using the Net Promoter Score. See more

How quickly should recruiters give feedback to retain candidate goodwill and protect the employer brand from collateral damage? A new visual insight from Measureology links applicant feedback response time to the Net Promoter Score. See more

KPIs should give a team the feedback they need to drive performance towards some important strategic goal. So why is it that KPIs are so often a bit lightweight?
See more