IMA26 · Executive Workshop · Individual Exercise

Trace It Upstream.

Pick one number your leadership asks you about. Then walk it backward — to the operations, the behavior, and the person who actually moves it.

HOW

Work top to bottom. Each layer feeds the one above it.

TIME

~8 minutes solo, then share your bottom line with your table.

GOAL

Leave with one leading metric you'll actually measure Monday.

Behavior
→
Operations
→
Finance
→
Outcome
Worked example — read bottom-up
Outcome: ROI is down this quarter.
Operational input: Fleet utilization slipped below target.
Behavior: PM work orders sat open > 3 days; machines broke down on rent.
Owner / leading metric: Service lead · "open PMs > 48 hrs," reviewed every morning.
1

The output they ask you about

ROI, margin, revenue, a KPI — the lagging number
↑
2

What moves it — one level down

2–3 operational inputs
↑
3

The daily behavior underneath

the human action — or inaction — that drives those inputs
↑
4

Owner & leading metric

name the person, name the number
Who owns this behavior
The leading metric to track
If I measured that one leading metric every Monday, what would change in 90 days?