It’s amazing how much has been written about the differences between scorecards and dashboards. It’s also amazing how much confusion still remains. I googled “scorecard vs. dashboard” and looked at the top three results:
- The Data Management Group talks about dashboards being used for real-time operational data and scorecards being used for aligned goals as part of a corporate management system.
- Manage by Walking Around has an entry on the difference between the two and points to the excellent definitions by Tom Gonzalez. Basically scorecard=strategic goals and results, dashboard=operational data and reports=raw data.
- The ActiveStrategy website has a page talking about what a Balanced Scorecard is, what a dashboard might be, and how you can link them. It also defines elements of a Balanced Scorecard.
There is general agreement among those who ponder these things on what the terms should mean and I doubt that anyone would argue with the Gonzalez definitions. But within any given company starting their own "Strategy Execution journey" (or scorecard/dashboard implementation), there is usually little common terminology and lots of confusion.
When working with organizations to implement Strategy Execution, we almost always hear “oh we already have a dashboard” or “we use scorecards,” only to find that what this entails is a report or huge collection of measures with no link to strategic objectives (or anything else, in some cases).
Even better (or worse) is that different people in the same organization use different words to mean the same thing. Goals to one group are objectives to another, and initiatives to a third. Different groups come up with different terminologies for the same basic concepts. And they often can be very married to “their” terms.
Since Strategy Execution is complex enough on its own, avoiding terminology confusion is an important part of a successful implementation across an enterprise. So be sure to spend time up front standardizing on terminology. You can’t align objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives if you are not talking the same language.
- Pick one set of terminology – the standard Balanced Scorecard terminology for scorecard components and the Gonzalez definitions of scorecards, dashboards, and reports would be a good place to start.
- Command if you can and plead if you must, but make sure everyone uses the same terminology.
- Explain the terminology at each training.
- Explain and get buy in from your IT leaning team members on the difference between Balanced Scorecards, reports, and dashboards.
- Making exceptions is a slippery slope; it is best to avoid them if possible.
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