Reports and quality
When the numbers get worse
Reporting a bad figure is easy with a cause and a plan attached, and very hard if reported late.
One month the percentage falls, cycle time rises, or three incidents appear where there were none. The temptation is to wait another month in case it corrects itself. That wait is what turns a figure into a problem.
The three ways to report it, and what each produces
| How it is reported | What it produces |
|---|---|
| Not at all, hoping it recovers | When it surfaces, it surfaces two months old and unexplained |
| The figure alone | Questions, alarm and an unplanned meeting |
| The figure, the cause and the plan | A decision, which was the point |
Important
The difference between the second and third is not tone: **the third closes the gap distrust comes through**. A worsening number with no explanation leaves the reader imagining the cause, and what they imagine is usually worse than reality — normally something about your management rather than a supplier who failed.
How to prepare it in ten minutes
- 1
Separate a case from a trend
Four stuck files are not a deteriorating process, and saying so prevents an unnecessary reorganisation.
- 2
Find the cause before writing
It is nearly always there: a staff change, a new supplier, a workload spike.
- 3
Say what you have already done
Even if little: the reaction counts as much as the figure.
- 4
And what you need, if you need anything
It is what turns a bad figure into a reasonable request.
Watch out
The case to be clear about: **if the figure worsened because you started measuring better, say so explicitly**. It is the commonest and least understood: recording incidents that previously went unrecorded makes them rise, and a reader without that context concludes quality has fallen exactly when control improved. That nuance is not visible in the chart.
What does not work
All three get spotted, and all three cost credibility for every later report, including the good ones.
Worth knowing
If the figure worsens two months running for the same reason and nothing has been decided, the problem is no longer the figure: it is that the report is not being used to decide, which was its only purpose.
›What if I do not know the cause?
Say that: "I do not know yet, I am looking into it" is professional; inventing one is not.
›Should I warn before the meeting?
If it is serious, yes. Nobody wants to find out in front of others.
›What if the cause is a person?
The report covers the process; the conversation about the person is separate and not public.
A real case
The situation
A manager sees incidents rise right after starting to record them all.
What you do
- Explains it in the report: they rise because they are now recorded, not because there are more
What you get
Management reads the figure as better control rather than falling quality.
The situation
The share of complete files drops from ninety to seventy-two per cent in two months.
What you do
- Compares the breakdown with the previous period to see where it comes from
- Separates whether the drop is one supplier, one area or everyone
- Checks whether anything in the process changed in between
What you get
The drop is explained by a specific cause rather than becoming a meeting of recriminations.
The situation
The number worsens because forty new suppliers came in with no file.
What you do
- Separates the new book from the established one
What you get
The indicator stops penalising growth.
The situation
The indicator worsens one month and the whole process is changed.
What you do
- Looks at six months of trend before touching anything
What you get
The reaction is proportionate to the problem.
The situation
It worsens and everyone is asked to try harder.
What you do
- Checks which specific step has lengthened
What you get
Effort goes where the bottleneck is.
The situation
The way of measuring changed and nobody said so.
What you do
- Notes any change of criteria with its date
What you get
The series stays comparable.
The situation
The figure worsens and stops being shown.
What you do
- Presents it with the cause and the plan
What you get
The indicator keeps supporting decisions.
The situation
One particular person drags the team's number down.
What you do
- Checks the detail before drawing conclusions
What you get
Overload is told apart from a performance problem.
This article answers
- how to report worsening indicators
- delivering bad news in a report
- explaining a figure that dropped
- the percentage fell what do i say