Performance Evaluation Made Simple

Nobody much likes performance evaluation systems. Managers find them unworkable and uncomfortable. Workers dread them. And many experts think we should scrap them altogether.But if you’re a working manager you don’t get much choice. You’ve got to do performance evaluations on your people using the system your organization has in place.

You can make lemons from this lemonade, though. Here’s how.

Start by understanding that there are really two different things that go by the name, “performance evaluation.” One of those things is your organization’s formal performance appraisal process.

Do whatever you must to handle your organization’s evaluation system. You have to work with whatever system your organization has devised. Someday you may be able to change it, but not now. Devote your time and energy to making the system deliver good results.

But the formal system is only part of the story. Usually the evaluation that happens there is like a report card. It’s a summary judgment of performance that took place over a period of time.

The real evaluation happens in hundreds of encounters during everyday work. It’s what bosses should do several times a day as a key part of their job. Do evaluation every day. Then, use he formal evaluation meeting as an occasion to review and plan with your subordinates.

There should be no surprises. When you sit down at that formal meeting your subordinate shouldn’t be surprised by anything you have to say. You shouldn’t be surprised by your subordinate’s reactions. That will happen if you’ve already done the hard work in little steps every day.

Figure out what’s most important. What are the critical things that your subordinate should be able to do? What level of performance should he or she strive for? What behavior is important to keep the team functioning at top level? Once you know the answers to those questions, you know what to monitor and measure and adjust.

Use every contact as occasion to improve performance. That means every contact, every day. Show up a lot so you learn about your people and they get to learn about you. And every time you show up take the opportunity to coach, encourage, counsel and correct.

Give notice if you have to start documenting behavior. Most of the time, your suggestion to change behavior or performance will be informal. That means you won’t need to document. And most of the time your suggestion and coaching will result in improved behavior.

But sometimes you need to let folks know that they’re not doing well enough. If they keep doing what they’re doing, you’ll have to start documenting their behavior. Let them know before your start.

Then, if you must document, do a few things. Keep good records of the performance or behavior that you’re tracking. Be specific about what happened, when and where.

Keep good records of your counseling meetings with your subordinate. What did you say? What did he or she say? How did you agree that things would change?

Making small course corrections along the way has a couple of advantages. First, small corrections are far easier to make than big ones, so your odds of a successful outcome go up.

Second, by making small corrections and documenting your counsel and your subordinate’s behavior, you’ve got the issue on the table. When the time arrives for formal performance evaluation, your subordinate will know where he or she has come up short. And you’ll know what they’ve got to say about how they’re doing. No surprises.

Take enough time in the formal session. In one organization where I did research we compared the time that top supervisors devoted to the annual performance appraisal meeting to the time that other supervisors took. The top supervisors spent almost twice as long in the formal session as their less-effective peers.

But, if there weren’t any surprises, what did they spend time on? They talked about growth and the future. That’s more enjoyable and more productive than going over what did and didn’t happen since the last review.

Make agreements on what will happen next. Be sure you leave the formal performance evaluation session with a clear plan for how your subordinate will develop during the next period and what you’re going to do to help.

Set milestones for your agreements. Determine who will do what and what the deadlines are. Determine how performance should change.

Here’s what to remember. The performance evaluation that makes a difference takes place every day, every time you encounter someone who works for you. If you take every opportunity to coach, counsel, encourage and correct your people, and if you document where you must, there will be no surprises at evaluation time. Then you can use the evaluation time to help people grow and develop.

by: WALLY BOCK.

You Get the Behavior You Reward Not the Behavior You Want

Behavior that is reinforced is behavior that is repeated. Behavior rewarded is behavior that is repeated.This simple, yet profound, concept is at the root of more poor productivity, broken relationships, negative personnel issues and high costs of doing business than any other management principle as well as peak performance organizations that grow and prosper each year.

What does the concept - you get the behavior you reward mean and what is the impact of it on your organization’s culture and overall performance?

Let me give you an example. You want an employee who is always late to be on time, but you don’t bring up his tardiness with him because it is only 10 minutes. So you wish and hope that the person would just get it - the policy is to be on time. But unfortunately, he doesn’t get your unspoken message and continues to be late. By not addressing this problem, you are sending the message that being late is acceptable behavior. It also sends a message to other employees who are on time, but might want to be late once in a while, that being late is OK.

There are two ways to reward behavior directly and indirectly. The above example is rewarding behavior indirectly - doing nothing. Here is an example of rewarding behavior directly. Let’s say you want your salespeople to spend more time on getting new business but your sales compensation program rewards sales volume only and not new account activity. DA, and you wonder why you have a problem?

There are thousands of ways that managers reward the behavior they don’t want, and then act surprised when they get more of it.

What behaviors are you rewarding in your organization that you need to change? One easy way to determine what these behaviors are is to look at the behavior and then determine why that person is acting in that way. If you don’t like the behavior, you need to change the reward system. I am not just talking here about financial rewards - but social, physical and so on.

If you are in a relationship and all you ever do is criticize the other person according to your standards, don’t be surprised if he/she stops communicating with you. If you nit-pik a person’s dress, attitudes, feelings, goals or thoughts to death, don’t be surprised if he/she doesn’t want to be around you. You get the behavior you reward.

The first step in changing behavior is to recognize the behavior that you would like changed. Next is to evaluate the reward system that is in place either indirectly or directly - why they are acting that way. Next, look at your own behavior and how you are contributing to the actions. This is not an easy task, but one that will pay handsome dividends in productivity, improved morale, improved communication and a better bottom line.

by: TIM CONNOR.

Marketing 101: ALWAYS Do What You Say You Will Do

It can be so frustrating when you get a number of people that volunteer to do something and they do not do it and it lands right back in your lap. Volunteer organizations are not the only ones to have such a problem; it exists in many businesses today. I worked for one of the top five companies in North America and part of my job was to gather information from various sources. I would ask at meetings for someone to forward the information to me and often got parts of what I needed from a variety of people. About eighty percent of the volunteers would get the information to me by the deadline I set. The others invariably let me down and I had to chase them for the information. We all have things we do not like to do and this puts us at risk for procrastinating about completing the task and perhaps letting someone else down by not doing it.Do not put yourself into the shoes of not doing what you said you would do. Take the time to schedule it in, create a milestone and reduce the risk of not completing the task. Once it is in your calendar, you will see it and you may be prompted to finish it off. No matter what you do, you are still building business relationships whether they are internal or external to your company. Always complete what you say you will do and do it in a timely fashion.

Volunteer to work on projects that can expand your expertise and further your knowledge. Avoid volunteering if you cannot do an adequate job and get the project finished in the time allotted. Doing what you say you will do is the most important aspect in building the relationship.

by: BETTE DAOUST.

Performance Management

If we in business are going to “number our days to present a heart of wisdom” then we have to start taking a strategic view of the manner in which we work. In my work with clients all across America, the number one thing that deters excellence in performance—regardless of role, age, gender, sector, or experience—has to be the phenomenon I call “time debt.”

Time debt is the chronic bleeding away of energy and focus due to un-calendared, strategy-less work. And, believe it or not, technology like Microsoft’s Outlook 2003 can make a significant difference.

Called in Time

Just like a soldier, you have a post…a place to stand guard over, a garden to tend. Your post includes three key areas: Time, treasure, and people priority. 1 Thess. 4:11 says, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business.” Your post is “your business,” and it is your responsibility to take care of it. It takes diligent strategy and faith.

Simply put, “your post” is the context in which you work out your calling. Your calling is that transcendent aspect of your life in Christ…it’s the expression of your true identity “chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.”

Although your calling—what you are made to be and the commiserate expression of it—is eternal, your post can change. But just like with a soldier, your post changes only upon orders. We must obey God. “My food,” said Jesus in John 4:34, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” Note that he didn’t say, “my work.” This is key. Truly no one can serve two masters. Your work doesn’t come from your boss or your customers. It comes from God Almighty.

But with your post also come your enemies. And the ugly part is that all these enemies produce one thing: Unending Time Debt.

Debt, whether in terms of time or money, can have the same debilitating, crippling effects. But all is not lost. Let’s look at what time debt does and how we can reverse it to the glory of Him who for freedom set us free.

Jack was a salesman for a large manufacturing company. With increasing pressure to move operations overseas, the atmosphere of work was grim and rumors were on everyone’s lips. Jack and all the others in sales were working their fingers to the bone to make their quotas.

Jack rolled into his office on Monday and he saw his unforgiving time debt for the hundredth time. He simply sat there at his desk and stared at the mountain of unfiled papers, the 325 unread emails, and a monitor covered in sticky notes. He could hear his heart speed up. He pitifully looked down at his well-worn to-do list and as soon as he could force his eyes away, he’d already seen at least 40 things he was supposed to have done last week.

So Jack, a believer, tries to do his best. But while he’s gathering his courage to face another day in such unbearable debt, his boss barges in and…well, you can guess the outcome…the list just got longer.

When Jack first came to work, he had energy, focus, and hope. Now, all that had been plucked from him and exchanged for fear and guilt—fear of life without a paycheck and the guilt of knowing that this was not what he was destined for. So, after a long moment of despair, Jack tries again to just start at the top of the list.

You can finish this story. Let’s be honest here, we’ve all be Jack at one time or another. Somehow we’ve not seen that our life in Christ really must be totally integrated. For the believer there are no false divisions called sacred and secular. And because of division, we’ve used technologies that simply don’t serve us. And one of those is the task list. They don’t ever allow us to see the big picture and, worst of all, because there is always more work to be done, they keep us in perpetual time debt.

Feeling Overwhelmed?

So what is Jack to do? What technology can he use? How can he get out of time debt, hear God, and have that life of freedom Jesus supposedly set us free for? How can Jack stay on his post and win?

He can start by taking the task list and doing something that borders on insanity: He can go through it item by item and estimate the time each task will take! Now, I’ve had many clients who I’ve walked through this process and the response is generally the same: “God help me! I have 86 hours of work to do on my task list!” To which I reply, “Has God authorized all that work? Has God authorized you to be stressed out and anxious?”

What nasty questions, I know. But obedience is really the only relevant issue.

The next painful step is to actually take a program like Outlook’s calendar and put every single task into it. If you want to be present to your life, slow down internally enough to hear what work God is authorizing, and actually get the work done, then you’ve got to get out of time debt.

The problem with the task list is that it is resides in the back of your mind as stuff you need to do, but haven’t done yet…subtly stalking you day and night. You are documenting and reinforcing a sense of constantly being behind in keeping up.

But, there is hope. Sometimes technology that is really effective is really simple. This is certainly the case here. The beauty of this performance management technology is that all you have to do is follow orders all day long. And when you’re done…you’re truly done. Task lists usually tempt us into doing the items that are easiest first. Result: More and more time debt…feeling behind, overwhelmed, running at the speed of light with our hair on fire. And, frankly, working just like the world!

The Answer

So here’s how to make the task list work to your advantage: 1) Take all your tasks and estimate the time each will take. 2) Schedule all the tasks…in other words transform the tasks into appointments. Now at the beginning of each day, pray over your calendar asking God to show you what work He is “in” for the day. Ask Him what work He is authorizing for the day. If something needs to move, or the order needs to change, do so. But, discipline is required. Once the tasks become appointments and the appointments become “authorized work”, the rush of freedom begins…you start to feel the time debt melting away. You no longer have 45 things to do…you have just one thing to do. Freedom at last!

Just open your calendar and honor the appointments. Why? Because you believe that they are authorized. You’ve abandoned the time debt and red-faced running around the world offers in return for your blood, sweat, and tears…stealing you away from the “eternal now” in which your heavenly Father has designed you to dwell.

You may think this plan is crazy. But I’ve seen the freedom first hand and it is real. It lets you be done with work when work is over.

After all you aren’t working for the boss, you are working for The Boss! And He has called you to a light yoke and an easy burden. How is that possible you ask! One way: Do only the work He authorizes. How can you do that? Get rid of your time debt and take your orders from Him.

If we in business are going to “number our days to present a heart of wisdom” and be “salt and light” in the earth, then we have to start taking a strategic view of the manner in which we work. The technology is there in any basic calendaring system. Use it to hear God, stay on your post, and bring value to every minute of your day. Now that’s real performance management!

by: ANDREW SEVIN.

New Approach to Business: A different way of thinking should see a new approach to business in the future

n my latest book, New Thinking for the New Millennium (Viking/Penguin), I write about the difference between ‘what is’ thinking and ‘what can be’ thinking. The more I consider our traditional thinking habits (or software) the more amazed I am that we have come so far with very limited mental habits. It is true that we have done much better in science and technology than in human affairs. This is a nice paradox because the Greek ‘Gang of Three’ (Socrates, Plato and Aristotle) were not greatly interested in science - yet it is in science that their classification mode of thinking has been most useful.

We claim that we cannot make much headway in human affairs because you cannot change history and you cannot change human nature. This is, of course, convenient rubbish. At the bottom of a platinum mine in South Africa there were seven different tribes attempting to work together. In a particular mine there was an average of 210 fights every month. Susan Mackie and Donalda Dawson taught my CORT thinking tools to miners who had never been to school for even one day. As a result the number of fights dropped from 210 to just four. History has not changed very much. Teaching thinking changes perception and changed perceptions lead to changed behaviour.

Most of the world’s major problems will not be resolved by yet more analysis. There is a need for design. There is need to design the way forward, even if the causes of the problems cannot be removed. Yet most thinkers are only equipped by education to analyse, not to design.

EDUCATION
In all countries, education wastes about two-thirds of the talent in society. There are many youngsters who are not good at the ’school game’. They are not good at taking in and storing information. They are not good at sorting out the information and giving it back in examinations and tests. So they do not do well at school and do not proceed to university. But they are excellent thinkers if they are given the chance to think. That thinking skill is never developed. It is never developed enough to give such youngsters confidence in their ability to face life. Teaching thinking is the best way to raise self-esteem - the most important thing.

Many organisations operate on the basis of ‘maintenance and problem-solving’. They keep going until problems appear and then they solve the problems. To this might be added the occasional merger and acquisition. This means that such organisations are operating way below their potential.

Universities are obsessed with the past and with ’scholarship’. Ths attention paid to designing the future is totally inadequate. The cultural gatekeepers of society (the press, etc.) are, in general, not very inspiring and are more used to carping and criticism than to anything constructive. There is so much that needs to be changed and yet so little propect of such changes happening at all quickly.

The Millennium should provide a wonderful opportunity for change. Not on a mystical basis, but because it provides a symbolic opportunity to look forward instead of looking backward. I suspect the opportunity will be lost. There is such immense complacency with today’s institutions and thinking.

Partly this is due to our misunderstanding of the concept of evolution. We assume that if things survive they must be getting better. This is not so. In a self-organising system things can get bedded down in a local equilibrium from which it is exceedingly difficult to move to a better state.

LANGUAGE
Language is an encylopaedia of ignorance. Words develop in language at a relative state of ignorance. They then get frozen into permanence and force us to perceive the world in a very old-fashioned way. That is why one of my next projects is developing a new language which will allow us to develop and communicate new concepts.

Traditional argument is a very crude and inefficient way of moving forward. Most people use it because they do not know any other method of discussion. The parallel thinking of the Six Hats method can be up to ten times as fast and far more productive. Instead of case-making, each person uses his or her information and intelligence to explore the subject and to be constructive. The method can be used equally by five-year-olds in school and by senior executives in some of the world’s largest companies.

It takes so very long to escape from centuries of traditional thinking. The available channels and mechanisms for change are inadequate since they are largely controlled by those who do not want change. Thinking should be the most important subject on the school curriculum. Usually it is not there at all. University departments concerned with thinking are a rarity. Is this because ‘thinking’ is not a legitimate subject for concern? Is it because we are so complacent about our current thinking habits that we cannot conceive any change or improvement? Is it because ‘thinking’ has never been a traditional subject and therefore has no status? Whatever the reason, the neglect of human thinking seems extraordinary to me.

THE WAY FORWARD
There are a growing number of individuals around the world who are beginning to realise that traditional human thinking is far from sufficient. Analysis, judgment and argument are seen to be lacking in creative and design energy. There is still quite a long way to go to rescue creativity from the ‘crazytivity’ idiom which has so held it back. Unless something is ‘wild and ‘ blue sky’, it is not considered creative. If it is wild and blue sky, it is considered creative - but too impractical to use. In this way creativity is marginalised and seen as a peripheral luxury.

Three things are becoming commodities. Competence is becoming a commodity as all organisations become ever more competent. Attention to ‘house-keeping’ is seeing to that. Information is becoming a commodity as more and more information is available to more and more people. State-of-the-art technology is becoming a commodity. If these three things are becoming commodities, then it is up to creativity to design new values from them.

Most executives are nowhere near realising the increasing importance of creativity. Efficiency is no longer enough. You can starve very efficiently, but you are still starving. Nevertheless, ’survival’ and doing the right thing moment to moment is a more attractive personal strategy than the risk of innovation. It is only when creativity and innovation become ‘the expected game’ that there is more risk in not being creative than in being creative.

SERIOUS CREATIVITY
I chose this title for one of my books in order to indicate two things. The first was that creativity was becoming a very serious part of business - an essential ingredient. The second thing was to suggest that crazytivity is not what creativity is about. I have often proposed that corporations should have a process champion whose business it is to energise and co-ordinate creative effort. Otherwise, it does not happen. The other suggestion is for a Concept R&D Department to design new value concepts - from existing ingredients.

Good luck and good thinking in the New Millennium. I shall shortly be setting up a New Ideas Design Unit, to act as a catalyst to help the emergence of new ideas.

by: EDWARD DE BONO.

Business Intelligence

Business intelligence (BI) has two different meanings related to the use of the term intelligence. The primary, less frequently, is the human intelligence capacity applied in business affairs and activities. Intelligence of Business is a new field of the investigation of the application of human cognitive faculties and artificial intelligence technologies and the management and decision support in different business problems.

The second, which is the subject of this article, relates to the intelligence as information valued for its currency and relevance. It is expert information, knowledge and technologies efficient in the management of organizational and individual business. Therefore, in this sense, business intelligence is a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, providing access to, and analyzing data for the purpose of helping enterprise users make better business decisions.

The term implies having a comprehensive knowledge of all of the factors that affect your business. It is imperative that you have an in depth knowledge about factors such as your customers, competitors, business partners, economic environment, and internal operations to make effective and good quality business decisions. Business intelligence enables you to make these kinds of decisions.

A specialized field of business intelligence known as competitive intelligence focuses solely on the external competitive environment. Information is gathered on the actions of competitors and decisions are made based on this information. Little, if any, attention is paid to gathering internal information.

Business Intelligence enables organizations to make well informed business decisions and thus can be the source of competitive advantages. This is especially true when you are able to extrapolate information from indicators in the external environment and make accurate forecasts about future trends or economic conditions. Once business intelligence is gathered effectively and used proactively you can make decisions that benefit your organization before the competition does.

The ultimate objective of business intelligence is to improve the timeliness and quality of information.

Businesses realize that in this very competitive, fast-paced, and always changing business environment the only thing that will help them gain a competitive advantage over their competitors is how quickly they respond and adapt to change. Business intelligence enables them to use information gathered to proactively respond to changes.

BI provides many benefits to companies utilizing it. It can eliminate a lot of the guesswork within an organization, enhance communication among departments while coordinating activities, and enable companies to respond quickly to changes in financial conditions, customer preferences, and supply chain operations. BI improves the overall performance of the company using it.

Information is regarded as one of the most important resources a company can have, second only to human resources. So when a company can make decisions based on timely and accurate information it improves the performance of that company. BI also expedites decision making because businesses realize that information can be used to achieve a competitive advantage so that when a business obtains key information they quickly use it before a competitor obtains the same information. It also maximizes the customer experience because when you are able to properly cater to the wants or needs of a customer you enhance the customer’s experience.

by: CARYL GRECIA.

Using Business Intelligence for Competitive Advantage

Introduction

The Japanese are masters of business intelligence, and some American companies were founded on the eyes and ear’s culture. Business intelligence is rapidly becoming a major source to achieve competitive advantage. This innovation is a legitimate business function, and businesses over time have collected data about a whole range of issues - mostly about their competitors. According to Greene (1966) business intelligence is processed information of interest to management, about the present and future environment in which the business is operating.

The latitude of business intelligence can be as wide or narrow as the corporation determines, with needs balanced against resources. Stoner et al (1985) suggest that corporate goals and existing strategies provide a framework for analysing its resources. This analysis is necessary to identify competitive advantages and disadvantages. Competitive advantages and disadvantages are the strengths and weaknesses of a corporation relative to its present and likely competitors .

The overall business intelligence concept is dependent on a process to manage information, using a methodology that integrates with the corporation’s functionality and automation. Gilad and Gilad (1988) believe that with structured Business Intelligence programs corporations are better able to:

• track current and potential competitors,
• analyse markets,
• develop profitable new products,
• determine likely candidates for acquisition or merger,
• monitor technological developments, and keep abreast of a broad range of political, economic, social and legislative trends with significant impact on a company’s future.

The Process

This Business Intelligence Process (BIP) is equally suited to any corporate application of any description. Its base function is for general and specific information handling requirements, and provides both focus and direction to support and enhance all forms of commercial processes. Businesses using a business intelligence methodology are able to develop intelligence based information systems, capable of serving the purpose of inquiry and analysis to gain a competitive advantage.

The methodology consists of a number of functions performed in a logical flowing manner, and its success is dependent on each function being carried out correctly. The BIP applies techniques that allow a transition from the conventional practice of reaction to a more proactive application.

The process is a cyclical pattern and works in an iterative fashion. At any time during the methodology there is scope to return to the beginning or subsequent phase, and repeat the process to identify information deficiencies. For instance, data collection will be a component that requires constant examination, therefore utilising the iterative philosophy of the model. It is difficult at the outset to identify and collect every data requirement due to:

• data being such a dynamic commodity;
• the information universe is a continuous flow;
• a change or progress in direction;
• availability of data during the phases of a particular project.

Other data requirements will become obvious as a project develops. With the iterative functionality in place, it is possible to continually return to the direction or data collection component. Therefore sourcing the data as it is identified to maintain control until the completion of the project.

Data collection is a continual application and must take into consideration, what is and what is not available, and what is known at the time of the initial gathering. The overall aim is to identify and collect data requirements as the project proceeds, and comprehend all the information deficiencies before its completion.

Set Objectives

Fundamentally, it is important to focus attention on the activities to be undertaken, to establish guidelines for the way ahead, and to ensure that everyone concerned knows clearly what is going on within the process. Coventry (1984) states that objectives impart direction, purpose and meaning to the operation. It is necessary to ensure that people know exactly what needs to be done and how to go about it.

The setting of objectives supports the BIP with a number of important functions, guidance for a coordinated effort of individuals, establishes expected performance standards, and provides the means for evaluation and control of the process. Mukhi and Potts (1984) believe that objectives are the first link in any control sequence. These objectives are a major force affecting the primary components of the system, and need to be expressed properly to achieve regulated and controlled relationships between the workers and the functions.

Define Functions

Activities, such as information management, must be broken down into functions. One of the most durable contributions of administrative theorists is the study of management as a set of functions. Fayol was an early advocate of this approach and believes that the best way to understand an organisation is to study its administrative apparatus - management.

The following points indicate the essential elements required to define resources to benefit functions and activities:

• understand the objectives of the paradigm;
• plan the resource needs to carry out the process;
• staffing needs; and
• establish effective relationships.

Define Resources

As a data control process, the BIP obligates collective association of all the components in the paradigm. Definitive resource acquisition and application will maintain focus and yield a successful entry to the first of the cyclical components - direction. Cooperation and teamwork linking functions and resources are an integral part of the control mechanisms for the BIP. This control requires a number of variables and has both analytical and human behavioural dimensions, of which the behavioural usually causes the most problems. Schuler et al (1992) state that without effective planning, an organisation may find itself without the people to run it.

Organisations can no longer assume that the right number of appropriately qualified people will be available. Schuler et al (1992) also declared that companies are increasingly forced to think about using human resource planning to gain a competitive advantage.

Direction

With the quantity of data flowing through the information universe, it is essential that a focused direction continues throughout the business intelligence paradigm. This component is dependent on the identification of certain factors and this operating segment of the business intelligence cycle extends to and demands a rigorous collection process. This can only be achieved with properly constructed objectives dictating the relevancy of the information. Subsequently, a measurable understanding of what is relevant can be monitored by the following criteria:

• defining the data required;
• identifying the data type,
• identifying the essential elements of the data; and
• utilising the iterative process.

Before proceeding to the data collection phase, adequate controls need to be in place to readily define and identify the relevant documents. Organisations need to adhere to the following control mechanisms to acquire clear goals to protect data integrity and worth:

• only data falling within the scope and aims should be collected and maintained;
• evaluation should be conducted at an early stage to test data for its worth;
• constant re-assessment of the information path; and
• sustain the iterative process to establish credible data collection processes.

by: MARK DAVIS.