How to Provide the Reports that Matter Most
If you’re an Improvement leader charting your way through an Improvement Program, what you want is a reliable compass and a good map – not a cluttered table of outdate maps. You need reports and metrics that will truly help you on your improvement journey.
In the world of business transformation, the stakes are high. You’re not just tracking numbers; you’re measuring progress, ensuring alignment, and paving the path to sustainable growth. Yet, with a dizzying array of KPIs, dashboards, and reports, it’s easy to feel lost. What information will steer your team toward success?
Where to start ?
The starting point for defining the right reports, is to ask what information is needed?
Reports (and by that we mean charts, dashboards, lists, analysis etc) are used, primarily, in two different ways:
- By individuals looking to understand progress – either for a single initiative or area or perhaps for the overall program. This may be to answer a query they might have about progress review.
- In progress reviews – where the progress report is used as the basis for the review meeting itself. In this instance the report needs to fully support the review and answer all the questions that should be covered in a progress review.
Let’s run through the typical format of a progress review to understand what information is needed (and this will also answer what questions individuals are looking to answer).
Key questions that should shape your transformation progress reviews at each level are:
- How are we doing against target ? (overall progress against both target value and time – including risk/adverse KPIs)
- Is the trend up or down ? (ie are we improving or falling further behind)
- Do we know the reasons for this ? and what are the actions we should take to address this ?
- How are the top 3 (or top 10…) initiatives doing ? (these likely account for much of the total value of your transformation – so you need to keep on top of these initiatives at all times if you want your transformation to be successful)
- Are there any obvious issues across the other initiatives ? what issues have been escalated ? and what help is needed ?
- What actions did we commit to in our last review ? Have they been completed ? What actions have we agreed to in this review ? (and is everyone clear on what is needed going forwards)
Lets run through each of these questions in detail!
How are we doing against target ?
Whatever level of progress review, whether the organization’s executive leadership or a department’s management team, a key question to open the review is ‘How are we doing against plan ?’
Reports need to show current status against target.
The metric being measured will vary depending on the strategic goals of the improvement program – it could be cost or churn or volume – but the program will have a target against that metric.
In the early days of a transformation, the target will be a top-down target set by leadership, based on high level requirements and what they believe is likely achievable.
Later, as the improvement program progresses and more detail is available, the targets might be bottom-up; that is to say, the target will be detailed and cascaded down to each department or area.
Either way, whether top-down or bottom-up, the leadership team needs to know if they are ahead or behind target.
Is the trend up or down ?
If actions have already been taken to get back to target, but the team isn’t there yet, then they need to know if are progressing in the right direction. Is the trend up or down ?
Reports need to show not only if ahead or behind target on key metrics, but also trend over time. If reviews are weekly, then the trend needs to be shown weekly and ideally since the start of the improvement program.
Do we know the reasons for this ?
If the team is significantly behind target, they need to understand the reasons behind this and the potential corrective actions they can take:
- More resources ?
- More focus on some area of the business to deliver more ?
- Was the target unrealistic and needs to be revised ?
The team needs to be able to deep dive as needed by area to understand if all areas are behind or just some areas or significant initiatives.
How are the top 3 (or top 10…) initiatives doing ?
Teams will inevitably find, due to the pareto rule, that 80% of the value of the improvement program will come from 20% of the initiatives. In other words, not all initiatives are equal and that some initiatives not surprisingly are more important than others.
The team needs to review each week, in detail, the top 3 (or top 10…) initiatives to establish that they are safely on track in terms of both value and timing and not seeing any major issues. If these top 10 initiatives are on track, then its likely that the improvement program is overall mostly on track. Conversely, if any of these critical initiatives are not on track then the whole program is likely to be behind target.
The team needs to be able to review detailed progress for these top initiatives including progress on:
- Current actions (is the initiative owner comfortable with current outstanding actions ? any roadblocks ? or help needed ?)
- Issues/Risks (what’s happening with current issues ? are new risks/issues being identified ?)
- KPIs (is initiative delivering expected performance for both process and impact KPIs)
- Workplan (how are we doing against plan ? what’s happening next ?)
This information gives the review team both a look at current progress but also a forward look against the plan to understand if they can support the initiative owner going forwards.
Are there any obvious issues across the other initiatives ? what issues have been escalated ?
Whilst the team completes a deep dive on the critical top initiatives, the team also needs to respond to any emerging issues on the rest of the initiatives.
The information needed for the remaining initiatives should show:
- Any escalations raised by initiative owners (where support is being requested)
- If the workplan is on track for both milestones
- If KPIs are ahead/behind target for both process and impact KPIs
This information will allow the review team to deep dive on the ‘reds’ only – as needed. So rather an exhaustive deep dive on each initiative, the team can focus their time and attention appropriately, spending significant time on the top critical initiatives whilst also ensuring they can support initiatives in the rest of the improvement program.
What actions did we commit to in our last review ? Have they been completed ?
Reporting also needs to track all actions being generated in the review.
The team should review the status of currently open actions either at the start or end of the review meeting. This should be a quick run through of open actions that are currently due (and not yet done) i.e., ‘red’ actions. This ensures team accountability.
Ideally, the status information should be color formatted, highlighting in red the overdue actions.
At the end of the progress review, the team should review all the new actions taken during the review meeting to ensure everyone understands the agreed actions, who is doing them and when
Conclusion
The information needed is going to be the information needed in your progress reviews. By tracking and reporting the information that really matters you enable your organization to not only track progress but also to accelerate it, by enabling your progress review teams to take the right actions.
Real-time reporting, coupled with thoughtful metric selection and clear communication, becomes a powerful enabler of continuous improvement. When you focus on outcomes over outputs, align every team’s efforts to strategic objectives, and present data in ways that inspire action, you create a culture of accountability and momentum.
This isn’t just about avoiding pitfalls or optimizing processes—it’s about instilling confidence at every level of your organization. Whether it’s a Chief Transformation Officer identifying new opportunities, a team lead refining processes, or an employee understanding their role in the bigger picture, the right metrics can unite everyone under a common vision of success.
Call to Action: Start Tracking Smarter Today
It’s time to audit your metrics. Are they serving your goals or simply filling reports? Take a moment to reassess, refine, and realign. Use this guide as a springboard to make your progress tracking and reporting more impactful.
Looking for the tools to make it happen? Explore how our business improvement, continuous improvement, and transformation software can simplify your metrics journey and help your team achieve measurable success.