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Key Articles & Papers

The Fourth Generation Balanced Scorecard Approach

Keywords: Strategic Balanced Scorecard, Strategy execution, Learning, responsive, models of change, performance management,
Updating the Strategic Balanced Scorecard to suit the needs of the 2nd decade of the 21st Century.

Today, clients come at the balanced scorecard from a different place. Recognising they manage amidst uncertainty and risk, they want agility and responsiveness and the ability to learn as they execute their strategy. They realise that control and measures are inadequate, it is about treating people as human beings, focusing on behaviours, not simply measures and targets. They need to empower people to make decisions locally, have conversations with customers in a human voice and that the most successful executives are managing with both left and right brains. They need ways to capture and manage their new models of business and new ways of thinking about strategy more appropriate to the second decade of the 21st century.

So the balanced scorecard also needs updating. Hence the need for the fourth generation Balanced Scorecard approach

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Types of Performance Management

Keywords: Performance Management, Governance, Types of Performance management.

Are you wrestling with the complexity of managing performance in organisations? You are not alone – many are.

Performance Management is not one single approach: organisations employ a variety of different approaches to different parts of their governance and performance management. Each approach serves different purposes. They all need to work together. Understanding the many different types of Performance Management within organisations

To improve your Organisational Performance Management approach, it helps to understand the many different types of Performance Management that organisations use, how they work together, and how they solve different management problems.

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Strategy Diagnostic: The Four-pen Test

Keywords: Strategy Diagnostic, Strategic Balanced Scorecard, Cause and effect model, Drivers of change
Does your strategy rely on Hope and Magic? Or do you clearly describe how change will happen?

This white paper is a really simple, but insightful, strategy diagnostic tool.  If you have a strategy and:

  • Want to make sure your strategy will create change,
  • Plan to design a modern balanced scorecard to support it,
  • Want to make sure you don’t have strategy by hope and magic,
  • Simply want to ensure you are telling a story that supports your strategy,

With this white paper, four coloured highlighters and 20 minutes, this test will help you.

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Understanding Strategy Maps and Strategy Mapping

Keywords: Strategy Maps, Strategy Mapping, Modern Strategic balanced scorecards

Are you wrestling with the complexity of managing performance in organisations? You are not alone – many are.

Need to explain your strategy better? Want to modernise or upgrade your balanced scorecard? Trying to be more strategic, so you can see the wood from the trees? Or do you simply want to ensure you deliver your strategy reliably? Or simply want to find out how Strategy maps and strategy mapping can help?

Whether you are an Executive, Practitioner or Manager you are in the right place…

Strategy maps capture and communicate your strategy, raise the level of conversation in meeting to both strategic and operational issues, and allow you to learn from your strategy as you execute it. This page explains how

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Environmental Balanced Scorecards

Keywords: Strategic Balanced Scorecard, Strategy execution, Learning, responsive, models of change, performance management,
How to measure and improve sustainability using an environmental Balanced Scorecard

If you are simply looking for ways to measure carbon footprint, this article may not help you (yet). However, if you are an organisation that believes in a sustainable environmental approach;if you are want to embed environmental and sustainable thinking into the way you act as a business; if you want to design an environmental balanced scorecard that communicates and supports such thinking and action; then read on….

This paper will help you avoid mistakes in environmental and social impact balanced scorecard and explain how you should designed them to embed environmental thinking and action into your organisation

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Public Sector Balanced Scorecards: A modern approach

Keywords: Public Sector Balanced Scorecard, Public Sector strategy map, Service delivery models, Austerity and cost reduction, 4G Balanced Scorecard
How to measure and improve sustainability using an environmental Balanced Scorecard

This paper explains how public sector bodies can model, describe and map their cost reduction strategy and their service delivery models using a strategy map, so that their Balanced Scorecard better communicates the overall challenge of austerity, whilst still delivering services.

This paper describes the overall approach to designing public sector balanced scorecards and using strategy maps in the public sector, based upon 4th Generation Balanced Scorecard thinking: A significant advantage over standard public sector scorecards.

If you are managing strategy and performance during the Public Sector Financial Review, then this paper has useful guidance, advice and mistakes to avoid.

(This paper was peer reviewed for the PMA Newsletter, (Performance Management Association) published September 2011.)

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Managing amidst uncertainty: Monitoring the external environment

Keywords: Uncertainty, external environment, strategic assumptions, External predictive indicators

Managing in an uncertain environment: KPIs and External Predictive Indicators (EPIs). A useful guide to avoid problems during the economic uncertainty and to prepare for recovery.

To help you manage in uncertain economic time, this paper introduces fourteen indicators for the economic climate. These fourteen indicators are used by smart organisations to avoid problems during the economic crisis and to prepare for recovery. It is a small part of the Fourth Generation Balanced Scorecard approach. This paper introduces:

  • Nine Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to avoid problems in your organisation
  • Five External Predicting Indicators (EPIs) to help you anticipate change and recovery in the economic conditions.

We use EPIs to refer to External Predicting Indicators which monitor the external environment. External Predicting Indicators look at the context and environment in which the organisation is operating. They are leading indicators of that environment changing. The signals that your strategy may need to change.

These are a part of our fourth generation balanced scorecard approach.

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