How Far Ahead Can You See? Measuring Maturity and Resilience with Leading and Lagging Measures

When I first started Co-Lab, most of my time was spent reacting. We were in the world of hours and days, dealing with whatever landed in front of us. The work was intense, decisions were fast, and everything felt urgent.

At that stage, our measures were mostly lagging. We only knew how we had performed after the fact, whether a deadline was hit, a budget was met, or a project was delivered. This information was helpful, but did not help us prevent problems before they appeared.

Building systems to see further

As Co-Lab grew, we started to implement better systems and processes. That allowed us to lift our heads and plan over longer horizons, moving from hours and days to weeks and months.

With that shift came the introduction of leading measures. These gave us early warnings when things were heading off track. Instead of reporting on outcomes, we began tracking the conditions that led to them.

For example:

• Pipeline health to understand future workload and demand.

• Delivery capacity to avoid overloading teams.

• Early cost signals to keep projects financially on track.

These measures gave us breathing space. They allowed us to act before a missed deadline or a budget overrun became inevitable.

The role of Business Intelligence tools

The real transformation came when we connected those systems into proper Business Intelligence (BI) tools. Suddenly, we had live data across multiple projects, automated reporting, and dashboards showing leading and lagging indicators in one place.

This integration meant we could:

• Forecast with confidence by looking quarter to quarter rather than only week to week.

• Spot issues early and intervene before they become bigger problems.

• Spend more time working on the business instead of being buried in it.

We built something more resilient with tested systems, reliable data, and a balance of leading and lagging measures.

A simple way to measure maturity

Over time, I have found that one of the simplest ways to judge the maturity and resilience of a business, programme, project, or department is to ask: How far into the future can you reliably see?

• Hours and days: You are firefighting and relying primarily on lagging measures.

• Weeks and months: You have some stability and are introducing leading measures.

• Quarters and beyond: Your systems are tested, your measures are balanced, and BI is doing the heavy lifting.

You will still need to get your hands dirty

Even with the best systems in place, there will be times when you need to get into the detail. That is the reality of running a business and keeping the ship moving. But when your data gives you a longer horizon, those moments feel less like crises and more like course corrections.

So, how far ahead can you see right now?