My approach to reporting is the result of years of trial and error.  I started by using reports from the application vendors .  I moved on to Crystal, Brio, Microsoft, Oracle and custom solutions.  The reports worked fine but, a pattern emerged where the only users were supervisors, managers, and directors in Finance and Operations.  VPs and CXOs did not adopt.  Sales and Marketing did not adopt either.  No paradigm shift. No increase in information flow to the executive team.  In other words, no stickiness with those who needed it most.

     I finally saw a real transformation when I implemented a simple trick in Excel as part of a sales project .  We bought a product that setup queries in Excel that would not only refresh its data all the way back to the source database but it also keep all the formatting.  The VP of Sales could, and more importantly, DID  refresh sales pipeline in two minutes by pushing a button in Excel himself.  He DID it not 10 or 20 times but 100’s and 1,000’s of times the first year—HIMSELF!

The transformation has several critical elements (notice that they are not technical);

Empowerment – The button is power.  It’s action.  It gives a visibility that was never there before. It’s 24/7

Efficiency – The VP was able to reclaim about 6 hours a week because of the automation.  This left more time and energy for analyzing and strategizing instead of collecting and typing

Stickiness – Once you get the leader using the information, everyone else follows.    Reports are now run daily instead of weekly increasing analysis five fold.

Lifecycle -- Data quality improves naturally as reports are read, mistakes are caught, correction made – repeat.  That leads to higher adoption to app, reports, process and data quality.

   What if this was a fluke?  Maybe the VP was unique?  Maybe the transformation could not be replicated? I moved to another company and did the whole thing all over again but even more successfully.  Then I sold the same strategy to consulting clients and it worked for them too.  The results were consistent so I realized I was on to something.

     At the new company, I was able to build clever web-based navigation, online reports, dashboards, and document management.   The single source of truth was in place.  Culture was changed toward using standard reports  and dashboards from a single source.   More leaders were analyzing and consuming more reliable information than ever .  (The solution wasn’t yet perfect as the change had only penetrated the executive team).

     Accidentally, I stumbled upon a Tipping Point strategy.   Tipping point is the social science concept,  made famous by  Malcolm Gladwell,  that seemingly small insignificant improvements can have profound impact to tip (drastically change) something for the better.  In this case,  small tricks with Excel, turned a report from being a brick in the wall to becoming a galvanizing tool for the team.    I decided to leave and start a business based on this experience. 

The Hawthorne Way is a strategy  of small, simple techniques to create momentum to change or “tip” toward effective reporting.  The momentum toward a single source of truth, better information, better data, better decisions, better results.   It’s part communication, part software, part database, part attitude – all of which contributes to tipping toward effective reporting.   I call it reporting that works.