The appeal of one number

Several online business health checks end the same way: a few minutes of questions, then one number out of 100. It is easy to see why. A score is quick, simple to compare and satisfying to improve.

The trouble is what it leaves out. A single number creates a sense of certainty that the evidence behind it rarely supports. Told you are 74 out of 100, you still don't know what to do on Monday morning.

What an average hides

Imagine a business assessed across six areas, each scored from 1 to 4. Five areas score well: 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.6 and 3.5. The sixth, say how the business tracks its own performance, scores 1.8.

Average the six and you get about 3.23. That sounds comfortable. Folded into one figure, the one area that could cause real damage has all but disappeared.

The same thing happens inside each area. A healthy average across five questions can hide one question where almost everyone disagreed.

These figures are illustrative, but the arithmetic is the point. Averages smooth things out, and the problems that matter most are often the ones that stand out from the rest.

What to look at instead

A profile tells you more than a score. The Business Health Check assesses six areas separately: Current State, Direction, People, Process & Operations, Customers, and Performance & Control. Each is reported on its own.

Two rules stop an average hiding a problem. Any single question averaging below 2.00 is flagged on its own, whatever its area's average. And if two or more questions in one area fall below 2.50, the whole area is flagged for attention, however healthy its average looks.

Then come the parts a score can't hold at all:

  • The gap between leadership and the team. Both groups answer the same questions, so you can see where they see the business differently.
  • The reasons behind the answers. Numbers show where to look. Written reasons explain why.
  • Recurring themes. One comment is one experience. The same point from many people is a pattern.
  • What people would change first. Asking what would make the biggest difference over the next 90 days shows what matters most to the people doing the work.

Questions to ask of any health check

Whichever assessment you use, a few questions will tell you how much weight its result can bear.

  1. Who answered? If it was only the owner, it measures the owner's view. That is worth having, but it isn't the whole business.
  2. Is there a reason behind each score? A number without an explanation tells you where something is happening, not why.
  3. Can you check the arithmetic? You should be able to see how every figure was reached.
  4. What does it say it can't tell you? A short questionnaire can't diagnose a business's finances, for example. An honest assessment says where its evidence runs out.
  5. Who decides what happens next? The evidence should inform your decisions, not make them for you.

The aim isn't to tell a business it is a 74. It is to tell it what the evidence says, clearly enough to act on.