Strategy Execution vs. Performance Management Software: What You Should Know (Part 4 - Performance Improvement)

In my introductory post on this topic, I explained my basic premise that there are major differences between Strategy Execution software and the broader category of Performance Management software and why I believe that only Strategy Execution software really helps an organization become more performance-focused. In Part 2, I highlighted specific software capabilities that I believe are key to supporting an organization's efforts to instill accountability. In Part 3, I talked about features that can drive strategic action. In this post, I'll talk about ways to ensure ongoing performance improvement.

Real improvement comes as a result of human interaction, the most productive forms of which are business reviews, program reviews, and personal goal assessments. I also believe strongly in the importance of identifying what's working in one area of an organization, then sharing and emulating  wherever applicable.

Here are some things I think you should look for if you're trying to use software to help support this human interaction:

1. It should support proven “best practice” methodologies for business reviews between managers and their direct reports. It must provide easy-to-create and user-friendly presentation tools that bring together the elements of Action and Accountability. And since business priorities and improvement focus areas can and do change frequently, it is critical that users can easily change the information they present during business reviews without IT support.
      
   
2. Software should support monthly/quarterly/annual manager-employee personal goal reviews. Ninety-day action plans and monthly scorecards displaying employee-level goals should be easy to create and review.
      
   
3. It should support independent reviews of projects/portfolios/program groups of projects. Status reports at the project or program level should be collected with automated workflow, and linkages to strategic objectives and measures should be easy to see.  It is important to be able to group these things together so one area of the organization can review just the initiatives that are important to it, without having to poke about to find them.
      
   
4. A system should support process-level improvement. Cross-functional processes can have owners and teams working on improvement initiatives to drive performance of process measures. These process measures might also appear as leading measures on business scorecards. Specific improvement functionality, such as improvement storyboards and embedded process mapping, should be supported.
      
   
5. There should be support for control charts. Long used in manufacturing and service industries, control charts are rapidly being adopted in government, healthcare, and other industries to focus on continuous improvement while preventing over-reaction to every “red signal.” Software should support features such as automatic calculation of control limits and sophisticated detection of out-of-control conditions. Although these techniques might seem more advanced than needed early on, the bang for buck when you start to apply them is amazing.  The tools need to present these capabilities in an easy-to-use interface, while shielding users from the complex statistical calculations typically involved in using control charts.

How does your organization encourage aligned, effective performance improvement? Do you use software to help? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Watch for my next post, which will address the important role communication plays in executing strategy, plus ways that software can be used to enhance effective communication.