Performance Management & Strategy Execution Blog: The Glue

Strategy Execution vs. Performance Management: What You Need Software To Do (Part 9: A Platform for Results)

Time for another installment in my long series on this topic. For those of you who haven't been following this thread, here's a quick recap. In my first post Strategy Execution vs. Performance Management, 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. I've since talked about accountability (Part 2), driving action (Part 3), performance improvement (Part 4), communication (part 5), data (part 6), who should manage this software in your organization (part 7), and distributed management (part 8). Today, it's all about what features in Strategy Execution software will help you achieve results.

So far in this series, I’ve been arguing that technology is needed to support true Strategy Execution.  More specifically, software that clearly captures the objectives of the organization and cascades them down through multiple levels, helping you ensure that everything is aligned to achieve the results you want.  

Once an organization masters these simple, profound concepts (that are ironically difficult to practice), they end up wanting more. Lots more. Here are some things I’ve seen organizations want as they become more advanced:

• Support for six sigma methodologies. Control charts, control limit calculation, out of control condition alerting and stoplighting, graphical navigation of connected control charts.
• Strong support for linking personal goals to the organizational strategy. Support for not just business reviews, but also personal reviews. The ability to “cascade” some of a manager's goals to her direct reports. The ability to have common department or company goals. Easy linkage with a compensation system.
• Process Management and Improvement. Once an organization has tackled the top-down strategy approach, they find gaps in cross functional areas. Select a system that can manage processes as well. Support for process hierarchies, process maps, and the ability to link measures and initiatives to the process are all important here.
• The ability to benchmark against internal and external best practices examples.
• The ability to support communities of practice or special interest groups to share best practices.   

Our next post will wrap up this topic with some predictions of where this whole Performance Management / Strategy Execution area will head over the next few years. 

I’d love to hear your comments on this topic or any questions you may have about using software to drive your Strategy Execution efforts.

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Are you a government or agency expecting to receive stimulus funds? Wondering how you can meet the new administration's calls for Transparency, Accountability, and Return on Investment?

Join ActiveStrategy for a free informational webinar to discuss these challenges on Wednesday, March 11th at 2pm Eastern. Best Practices in Managing Stimulus Projects will examine how using a Balanced Scorecard framework to monitor your portfolio of projects will enable you to manage proactively and meet the standards set for transparency and accountability in the recently-passed ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Act).

We'll also briefly introduce our newest product, ActiveStrategy StimulusScorecard™, which is designed to centrally collect, maintain, and manage the information and actions needed to keep your stimulus-funded programs on track.

Topics we'll discuss include:

• Defining the challenge set forth by the Obama administration for agencies receiving stimulus money
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• Benefits of using a Balanced Scorecard framework over other methods of project management
• Review of example Stimulus Project Scorecards
• Discussion of the processes in use at the most progressive governments in the country to drive Change
• How you can easily make your data publicly available to your constituents

The webinar will be presented by Christine Heflin-Ewing, who leads ActiveStrategy’s Public Sector Practice Group, which helps governments, the military, and federal agencies drive better transparency, accountability, and results through strategy execution. She is an experienced performance excellence practitioner with over thirty years of leadership in government innovation and improvement. Immediately prior to joining ActiveStrategy, she was an Internal Consultant on performance improvement at The City of Coral Springs, the 2007 Baldrige Recipient. She currently serves as a Baldrige examiner.

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