Variance
Reading what happened
Six causes sit ahead of the schedule, and it gets blamed because it is the only one with an obvious remedy.
Planned Against Actual Hours
The variance everybody reports, what it actually measures, and why it is a worse question than the one nobody asks.
Why the Variance Is Almost Never the Schedule
Six causes sit ahead of the schedule, and checking them in order takes ten minutes. Most operations start at the end.
Reading a Labour Report
What to look at, in what order, and the three things most reports leave out that you should ask for.
The Metrics That Mislead
Five staffing measures that are widely used and quietly wrong, and what each one actually responds to.
Explaining a Bad Week
The explanation that gets accepted is specific, checkable and arrives before the question. What goes in it.
When the Target Is Wrong
Sometimes the budget cannot be met without harm. Making that case requires arithmetic rather than assertion, and it is winnable.
Reporting Upward Without Guessing
What a senior reader needs from a staffing report, and the claims that will not survive a question.