A company was struggling with high operating costs. A quick review revealed that payroll costs were a key factor. Further review showed that the company was experiencing consistently high overtime. The company’s leadership asked a team of managers to come up with some possible solutions to the cost problem. Here is what they came up with: · Reduce… (read more)
Author: Brad Kolar
Aligning your data and decisions. Why there is no ‘Category 6’ for hurricanes.
With Hurricane Dorian in the news, I thought it might be a good time to repost this article. It provides a great illustration of aligning data and decisions. And, to the people in the Caribbean and Southeastern United States, my thoughts are with you. I hope you remain safe during this difficult storm. Original Article:… (read more)
Avoid these 3 common traps when reading reports
If you’re like most people, you probably get a lot of reports each week. And, also like most people, you spend a lot of time reading through them. Many people tell me that they spend way too much time browsing reports. This wastes time and delays decision making. It’s important to be strategic when looking… (read more)
Context Versus Background: Streamlining Your Presentations and Decisions
What’s the first thing that you do when you see a “background” section in a presentation or communication? If you’re like many people, you probably said, “Ignore it”. If it’s during a presentation, you probably also let out a loud sigh and slouch in your chair a bit! Yet, I’d bet that you provide “background” in… (read more)
Five Easy Rules for Simplifying Your Communication
The other day I introduced the “Jessica Taylor Rule”. The rule is simple. When reviewing your writing, read each sentence out loud. If you run out of breath while reading, revise it. It’s probably too long for your audience to process mentally. That post received a lot of positive feedback. People are looking for simple ideas… (read more)
Where would I breathe? Simple advice for creating clear communication
Sometimes the best advice is the simplest. Lately, to highlight the importance of simple, clear communication, I’ve been posting “bad sentences”. Bad sentences are those that are difficult to read or hard to process quickly. You probably run into them all the time online, in books, and in emails. They are even more common when… (read more)
Countering confirmation bias: seek the opposite
Confirmation bias is one of the most significant obstacles to good data-driven decision-making. The old adage “Seeing is believing” has been misleading us for years. The reality is the opposite: believing is seeing. What we believe has a much greater impact on how we see data (if we even “see” it at all). Not only do… (read more)
Speak first, apologize later – the new trend that’s killing civility
Last week, Washington State Senator Maureen Walsh found herself in hot water. During a debate on a medical bill, she made an off-handed comment about nurses. She said that they “probably play cards for a considerable amount of the day.” After a fierce nationwide backlash, Walsh apologized. This isn’t unusual these days. In any given week, I see… (read more)
Is your company really data-driven? Or, is it simply obsessed with numbers?
The other day I was speaking with a leader about bringing my Rethinking Data workshop into her organization. Before I could get too far she stopped me. She said, “Brad, we don’t need your workshop. We are a heavily data-driven organization.” Then, to back up her statement, she showed me several “data-rich” presentations and reports. The presentations contained… (read more)
Metrics may represent reality, but they aren’t reality
The Midwest is bracing for some cold weather. Forecasts around the Chicago area predict some of the coldest temperatures in Chicago’s history (at least in the history of recorded temperatures). As Chicagoans gear up for the cold, the “old timers” are rolling their eyes. They tell us that while our forecasted -55 wind chill is cold,… (read more)