In our blog posts, we often stress the importance of sharing relevant, actionable data in real time. But when my friend’s 86-year-old wife had to be treated, I was confronted with the importance of data at an essential level — that of existence itself. Doctors needed to perform an ultrasound, measure her blood pressure, and monitor her heartbeat.
Each of these actions results in a pile of data, but medical experts only focus on crucial information. Data selection is a set of life-or-death decisions. After all, their patient’s life literally depends on their ability to detect threats on time.
The key to your organization’s survival
As I was looking at the monitor, it dawned on me: this tiny screen ‘serves’ different information to different target groups. The doctor will determine what’s relevant to a specific patient at a particular moment. The ‘information need’ is decided by someone’s current condition. That means the right information sharing strategy is really the heartbeat of any healthcare organization.
If you think about it, that’s the underlying principle for every organization. Of course, those who don’t operate in healthcare usually don’t deal with life-or-death situations. But a company’s survival does depend on sharing the right data with the right people at the right time.
Mess it up repeatedly and you’ll need to close your (virtual and physical) office doors for good. It sounds harsh, but it’s the truth. Your company’s viability is, in fact, very much dependent on the decisions employees make in real time. If you share actionable, topical data with your staff, you’ll empower them to make choices that help prevent problems and support organizational growth. If you constantly present them with irrelevant information, they’ll be in the dark and take action based on their gut feeling. The latter won’t get your organization far in the long run.
As long as our hearts beat, we care
Let’s circle back to healthcare for a moment. Even if your organization is active in a completely different sector, there will be an element of care in your strategy: you’ll want to keep your employees happy. Sharing relevant real-time data with them is one way to achieve that goal. It will help them make well-informed, independent decisions and optimize customer satisfaction, among other things.
Here’s a simple equation that summarizes it all:
Empowered employees = happy employees = happy customers = healthy organization.
In that spirit, let this be your motto: “As long as our hearts beat, we care!”
Want to explore your Visual Management opportunities? Please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are happy to perform a Quick Scan and discuss your information sharing strategy.