The Third Best UCR Best Practice

Unregistered Carriers on 12/18/2009 - 1378
Unregistered Carriers on 12/21/2009 - 1382

Illinois - 93.58%
Maine - 93.18%

As threatened, I'd like to talk a little about another UCR Best Practice - statistics.

How important are statistics? I think they're really important for several reasons. Statistics tell you:

1) Where you are
2) Where you've been
3) Where you're going

An old business adage suggests that "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it." For the most part, I'm inclined to agree - at least as far as UCR goes. Unfortunately, you CAN supervise it - which, I believe, is causing some states - and the rest of us - a lot of problems.

What's the difference between management and supervision? Here's my ten-second, oversimplified version: a supervisor makes sure that you are doing today exactly what you did yesterday - maybe a little more efficiently. A manager makes sure you're doing important stuff.

If you are driving a car towards a cliff, a supervisor (no clue about the cliff) makes sure your steering technique is good and that you are maximizing your gas mileage ... while a manager tells you to make the necessary changes to get the car rolling in a more productive direction....away from the cliff. Big difference. Many times, supervisors are not even aware that things are going awry ("that's not my job"), let alone what to do to fix it.

Why do I bring this up? Because managers manage - often, to numbers - while supervisors supervise.

Managers know that the numbers paint a picture. Managers know that numbers create a perception. Managers know that if you point to a certain number and say, "This is where we are ... and this is where we want to be", a good staff (which I'm fortunate to have) can intuit a certain amount of what needs to be done and maybe even provide ideas on how to get there.

Let's face it ... even if you don't use numbers, other people are looking at your numbers and forming perceptions about what kind of job you're doing.

Try using the numbers ... you won't go back.