An ingenious management tool as client efforts expand to several statistical designs was suggested to us a while ago by a veteran CEO. It is a seemingly simple report, with one page for each project showing the improvement in the main measurement, annotated for actions taken.
In assembling the first edition for monthly update, the organization reaches agreement on the operational definition of the measurement. Discussions that take place after this discussion are more focused. The Control Book allows executive teams to manage the improvement effort in a short meeting every month. Financial information is also footnoted so that the overall ROI is clear at a glance every month. The idea is simple. Its execution is deceptively difficult but consumes little time. The tool also makes implementation straightforward whereas it can otherwise be elusive.
The reasons this simple tool can be difficult to introduce differ by organization and are best discovered by each client. Once in place and with a monthly forum for managing it, the tool is remarkably powerful and much liked. It is harder to accomplish than the statistical designs, mainly since sustained implementation is the hardest part of improvement.
The Control Book is the most effective way to manage implementation, short and long term.
