"I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind."
   Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) Scottish physicist and mathematician.

Those who know my history, know I have an unhealthy obsession with all things numerical in the workplace, so the quote will come as no surprise. Indeed, I made an Investor's In People assessor laugh when I said "if it moves, measure it"; in relation to the company I coached through their hardcore people and business management standard. (We passed, with flying colours :>)

The very same company regularly increases their business revenue by at least 10% each quarter. And not because I'm there on the sidelines with my pom-poms going rah-rah, but because I'm there turning their goals into something measurable. (And doing their number crunching too, lucky me!) The Managing Director now gets excited by charts and tables and graphs, as he knows he can make quality decisions from them.

This months articles help "spread the word" about numbers in the workplace and why they're a good thing, to be embraced and not avoided. The first article is Basic Business Statistics explained in everyday language, giving you the confidence to talk about and question numbers. The second article How To Create A Histogram sounds as if it's straight from a math curriculum, but it's worth a look, as histograms are mighty powerful management tools.

Click whirr and out, I'm off to spin my propeller!

Warm Regards

Lyndsay Swinton
www.mftrou.com

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1. If It Moves, Measure It! Basic Business Statistics Explained
Understanding the basic principles of statistics transforms a good manager into a great manager. Using basic business statistics, you can turn data into knowledge and increase your decision making accuracy. In the time it takes to make a coffee, you'll know the most useful basic business statistics and become fluent in number-speak

2. If It Moves, Measure It! How To Create a Histogram
When you know how to create a histogram, you move from knowing a little bit about a process to knowing a lot. When you know your process, you've gone a long way towards making big improvements. Learn how to make a histogram in this short article, and discover hidden information about your process

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