There are many ways of defining management. Some of those definitions get mixed up with leadership and others get confused with bureaucracy. I'd like to offer this definition of management: The continuous process of aligning intention with facts. Management is about understanding the world you operate in, forming a plan about engaging with that world, executing the plan, and measuring the outcome. You then go around the cycle again.
Now, facts are hard to come by. A fact is more than a piece of data. Data isn't hard to come by at all - we're drowning in data. Facts are data that are tied to meaningful entities. So, “1600” and “20500” are two pieces of data. They could be sums of money in a list of transactions. Or they could be elements of the White House address (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington DC 20500). Data give answers, but only in the context of facts.
Facts and intentions are bound up with each other. Since a fact is data that responds to a question, you need to be asking questions if you're gathering facts. The questions you ask will be based on what it is you're trying to accomplish. Analysis of the domain you're interested in is closely connected with your intentions for that domain.
Sometimes, gathering facts is a way of gaining an overview that will allow you to make more targeted intentions – and thereby gather more specific facts. In any case, when the facts are in, you will take action, and measure the effect by gathering new data.
What I've described here is the classic management cycle: set goal – take action – measure feedback. I've described it in the way I have because the “measure feedback” stage depends crucially on the nature of facts. Unless you have a clear understanding that facts are more than just data, your management cycle can spin off into a parallel universe. You can end up approaching the wrong markets, fixing non-existent problems, or promoting symptoms over causes.
The way to avoid this danger is to have a strong articulation of your domain in terms of facts. In the next post in this series, I'll outline what that strong articulation must be.
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