Our leadership team keeps trying to build our scorecard in a vacuum by guessing at metrics, resulting in a useless spreadsheet. How do we practically run the Great Day or Lousy Day exercise with our team to extract raw, meaningful numbers?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If your leadership team is struggling to find the right metrics, they are likely overthinking the process and trying to design the perfect spreadsheet from scratch. To cut through this analytical paralysis, you need to run the Great Day or Lousy Day exercise.

Start by clearing your whiteboard or opening a blank document. Divide it into two columns: one labeled Great Day and the other labeled Lousy Day.

Ask your leadership team a simple question: If you were on a beach with no phone or internet access, what five to fifteen numbers would you need to see on a single sheet of paper to know the business had a great week?

First, list everything that happens on a great day. This might include clients paying invoices on time, prospective clients booking sales calls, or project milestones being completed ahead of schedule.

Next, list everything that happens on a lousy day, such as a client canceling their contract, a critical system crashing, or a project running over budget.

Once you have a comprehensive list, identify which items can be measured on a weekly basis. Translate these events into specific, quantifiable activity metrics. For example, client canceling their contract becomes weekly client retention rate.

Narrow this list down to five to fifteen vital numbers that give you a complete, balanced pulse of the business. This exercise strips away the complexity and focuses your team on the raw, operational activities that truly drive your daily success or failure.