In this provocative yet practical guidebook, Steve Morlidge demonstrates why the performance reporting approach and methods that all information professionals have been taught fail and what we need to do differently to help us make sense of the dynamic, complex, and data-rich world in which we now live and work.

Reporting on performance should not be treated as worthy but dull, requiring no more than routine comparisons of actual against targets. This traditional approach is based on the false premise that organizations can be managed as simple mechanical systems operating in a predictable environment. The methods associated with it, such as variance analyses and data tables used to measure and communicate performance, are completely inadequate.

Instead, Morlidge argues that performance reporting should be reconceived as an act of perception conducted on behalf of the organization, helping it make sense of the sensory inputs (data) it has at its disposal. To do so effectively, performance reporters need to learn from and exploit the strengths of their own brains, compensate for their weaknesses, and communicate in a way that makes it easy for their audience’s brains to assimilate.

Drawing on the latest insights from cognitive science in this book, you will learn:
• How to bring a dynamic perspective into performance reporting • How to deploy a set of simple tools to help speared the signal from the noise inherent in large data sets and to make sound inferences • How to set goals intelligently • About the grammar of data visualization and how to use it to design powerful and simple reports

In this way, information professionals are uniquely charged with the responsibility of creating the shared consciousness that is a prerequisite for organizations to respond effectively to and adapt to their environments.

ISBN:- 1838591095; 978-1838591090