Monday, nine in the morning. Someone exports sales from the invoicing software, hours from another spreadsheet, orders from email and balances from the bank. By midday there is a report. In the afternoon, the meeting argues about whether the numbers are right.
The decisions that mattered had already been made the week before. Without a report.
Spreadsheet Monday
The data exists, scattered across six places that don't talk to each other. Pulling it together is manual work, and everyone does it their own way. That's why there are almost always two numbers for the same thing.
By the time the report is ready, it's describing the past.
What it costs
Here too there is no number in the calculator, and we won't make one up. The cost shows up in three places any manager will recognise.
- 01
Decisions on gut feel
You decide with what you know at the time, and the report only confirms it later.
- 02
Meetings spent checking numbers
Meeting time goes on arguing about which of the numbers is right.
- 03
Hours compiling
Someone spends a morning a week pulling together what the systems already had.
Why it's late
It isn't for lack of effort. It's because the report always starts from scratch: export, paste, check, format. Every step depends on someone, and everyone has other work to do.
A report that starts from scratch every week will always be late.
And the more indicators people ask for, the later it arrives. The usual fix, adding another tab to the spreadsheet, only makes it worse.
How to measure it
Pick the five numbers management looks at every week. For each one, note where it comes from, who calculates it and how long it takes between the end of the week and the moment it's available.
Three questions to ask this week
- 1What are the five numbers that decide the week?
- 2How long is it between the end of the week and the report?
- 3In how many meetings last month did you argue about whether a number was right?
If the answer to the second question is measured in days, the report is arriving after the decisions.
What changes
At Myo Clinic, the network of six clinics now sees each clinic's sessions, teams, leads and procedures on a single dashboard, with an AI assistant for the network manager.
When the numbers are already on the dashboard before the meeting starts, the meeting stops being about checking numbers and becomes about what to do with them.
Written by
Guilherme Ferreira · Head of Technology and Operations
Leads the Operations Map and connects the technical side to the operation.
