Win Each and Every Day

There is one thing any operations professional should focus on each day, regardless of what else you have going on.

Operational Situation Report (OSR)

One of the first things I introduce to business owners is the idea of an Operational Situation Report – or OSR for short. This is a one page (no more) of data that gets you quickly up to speed on the most important parts of your business, where the business needs attention, and where you can focus for the day. It also serves an extremely important purpose – it frees your mind on the tactical aspects of the business.

Everyone loves this idea, but find the thought of creating a report each morning to much to get their heads around. And I agree. This information should be pushed to you each day. You have a team? Delegate. No Team? Create dashboards in your systems so you can just pull up the data. You don’t have systems? Well, you should call me……

What goes into the OSR

A common question is “can you just give me the template and I will have my team complete each day”. No, I cannot. Not because I don’t want to, but because that is impossible. Each business is different, each business owner has different needs and consumes data differently. An OSR will continue to evolve over time, and in the beginning it could change quite frequently. This is a discovery process to get it right. Once figured out, it will be the most important part of your day.

What Do I Do With The OSR

If done correctly, you should only need 5 minutes to review your OSR. There may be questions that need answered, tasks that need to get followed up on, people that need attention, etc. But you will be able to easily plan the rest of your day and free your mind to focus on the areas to move your business forward. Your OSR become a working history of your business. Save each days and create weekly, monthly and yearly reviews of your business. It is hard to see progress each day, but a review of your OSR’s over time will show just the progress (or lack thereof) your business is making.

If you would like to see how an OSR would impact your business and how to implement – send an email to marc@totalcoo.com and we can schedule a free operations strategy session.