Principles of Effective Balanced Scorecards Part 6

"Of course we have a scorecard. I designed it at home the other evening"

Very early on in my Balanced Scorecard career I heard a lovely story. Some of my colleagues had been to see a potential client about some scorecard work. It turned out he had one right there. He opened his draw and pulled a balanced scorecard out. Then he proudly announced, "I don't need any help. We have a Balanced Scorecard. I put this together one night after reading the book".

Now out of politeness my colleagues did not roll about on the floor laughing (or so they tell me). But the irony of the statement meant they could not resist asking the natural follow up question. Which was: "So, if you don't mind me asking, how many of your colleagues, fellow members of your management team, to whom this scorecard applies, were also involved in the choice and design of this scorecard".

I suspect you know the answer.

He certainly had a balanced scorecard: But no one else did. Now it might be that what he had produced was exactly what his colleagues would have produced. You know when that happens. When you bring a proposal to a meeting and everyone immediately says' "Yes, that is exactly what I was thinking. You are completely right; we need no discussion, debate or changes. It is perfect. Now lets go and implement it in our departments just as you proposed it."

Well maybe it happens often to you, but usually only if you are presenting a new idea to a room of people who do not care about it, as it will not affect them. Someone might even suggest that they are merely clones, dummies or puppies that like to have their tummies tickled. I couldn't say, but I don't see it happen very often in any management team I have dealt with or being on.
Things happen when people own the idea and feel they have either being at least a partial creator of the idea, involved or have tested it sufficiently that they think it is robust. Likewise, the Strategy map and Scorecard you produce needs to be owned by the rest of the management team who will use it. If they don't, then guess what, it won't get used.

The best of the Norton & Kaplan scorecard books is "The Strategy focused organisation". Whilst they are useful reference documents, you can read all of chapters and not find a section that describes how you get a management team to agree on the scorecard or strategy map (something we of course did with every engagement but never got written up in the case studies books). The trials and tribulations of getting them to agree which few objectives should be the ones to focus on. Chapter 3 is all about building strategy maps. It should be called "the technical design of strategy maps" for that is what it explains. Nowhere does it explain how you get those technical designs into people's heads so they want them, agree with them and believe in them.

The third book is similar. It contains four hundred pages of how to design a strategy map. Yet, no matter how hard you look there is almost nothing on how to get the management team walking out of a room all agreeing that the design of the strategy map is the one they all believe in. I'm sure somewhere I have seen the line, "Now get your management team to agree the startegy map" which sums up the approach in the books, but I can't lay my finger on it. This leads to principle number 9

9 It's a collective endeavour - its about collective understanding.

We all know stories of planning and strategy being delegated to a planner or strategist. We all know what the likely outcome is. Whereas when people do planning, the value lies in their understanding of the planning assumptions, drivers, background and reasons for the decisions. It is about people: Having a collective understanding, of what, of why, of how. People think in many different ways: So variety, diversity & versatility are needed to create understanding and collective ownership.

The act of discussing and designing and agreeing a strategy map and scorecard as a team has the effect of teasing out differences in understanding, assumptions and direction, creates consensus and means that the team all leave the room with the same story. You can do it as an individual. However all you have done is create another (individual) version of the story.

When clients are engaged in our strategic planning and strategy mapping workshops we are not only developing a view of the strategy with them but getting it into the collective heads of the management team. You'll recall our earlier principle, which was about being able to tell the strategy from the strategy map and scorecard. If you can't do this, there is something wrong. More importantly, if any member of the management team feels that it does not represent the strategy then you have either a division over the understanding of the strategy or a strategy map and scorecard that do not represent it. Either way you need some strong facilitation, change management and communication skills to help them bridge that gap.

Before the next newsletter, in which we will explore maintaining and evolving your strategy maps, be brave. Ask around your management team to see if they believe in the strategy map and scorecard. Ask them are they using it, do they talk about it, do they expect their teams to use it and manage with it? Is it giving them useful information? If you aren't getting the right sort of vibes, then you know who to talk to, don't you?

More soon

Phil Jones
http://www.excitant.co.uk/