Performance Management & Strategy Execution Blog: The Glue

Gartner's Predictions for Scorecard & Strategy Management Software

Gartner recently published a report on software solutions for Scorecards and Strategy Management. While the vendor coverage was pretty thin (though positive on ActiveStrategy, incidentally), I was interested in some of the broader survey results.

According to this report, about 30% of respondent companies are using an automated solution for strategy management and another more than 45% are planning on implementing a system in the next 12-24 months.  Those are huge numbers and would indicate a coming increase in demand for performance management experts (both internal and external) to help create all of those strategy maps and scorecards, train people in methodology, help with culture change, and implement sound business review practices.

If you are someone involved in deploying Scorecards and Performance Management (which is probably fair to assume if you're reading this blog), and these numbers are right, you are probably going to be in much greater demand in the near future...especially given the statistic in the same report that 50% of Balanced Scorecard/Performance Management efforts fail. More on that next time.

The Fastest Deployment of an Automated Balanced Scorecard Framework I’ve Ever Seen

I very recently helped a client fully deploy an automated balanced scorecard framework from start to finish within just two months. The client has their scorecards built, data loaded, they’re holding effective business reviews across the organization using the framework, and they are self-sufficient moving forward. 

You're probably thinking: "But this is impossible! Many organizations implementing scorecards/ performance management don’t get that far in a year." Really? Just ask Seven Hills Foundation.

So what’s their secret?  They weren’t small (they have 3,000 employees), they weren’t simple (they provide services to 28,000 individuals with disabilities and life challenges through programming at 150 locations), they didn’t have any more extra free time than any other client (Seven Hills was right in the middle of budgeting season).  But Seven Hills did have what I'll call all 5 keys to a rapid, successful deployment:

1. Availability – just scheduling time with project participants (from executive users, to decision makers on strategic content, to data experts) can often take weeks.  But in Seven Hills’ case, they were ready to meet the day the contract was signed and management had made it clear that participants should prioritize time over other items.

2. Skills and Authority – those learning about the software had the skill set to absorb the information, those learning about the methodology had the skill set to appreciate the concepts, and those making decisions on content and direction were given the authority to make those decisions.

3. Scope that Mattered – the client chose to build the first scorecards for affiliates (businesses) that had a burning need immediately.  As an example, one affiliate team needed the automated scorecard solution to score highly on their 3 year CARF accreditation coming up in a matter of months (CARF is an accreditor of health and human services providers).  Though the drill down in some measures was very deep (i.e. thousands of measures), the total number of scorecard-level measures was low -- they focused on what was pressing.
   
4. Content Ready to Go - this client had already picked the measures they wanted to see.  More than that, they had understood what the measures meant, where the data was coming from, and had approval from management to set targets and ownership.
   
5. Reviews – with the scope focused on what was pressing and scorecard teams that had a reason for using the scorecards immediately, we worked quickly to create views and variance reporting that would immediately suit their workflow and live use needs.  The day the scorecard was complete, the affiliate teams were using their scorecards in business reviews and locking in the software skills they had learned.

The result? Seven Hills was reaping benefits from their automated scorecards starting on day 1. Watch for updates on their impressive story soon.

Did You Miss the "Admin Track" at the ActiveStrategy Client Conference?

Our Client Conferences typically feature a range of case studies delivered by the executives, business leaders, and scorecard owners from our clients. This year for the first time, we added a new option, splitting ActiveStrategy Enterprise software administrators into their own dedicated track. It was so popular that we could barely fit in our breakout room, but that didn't stop us from having some great idea sharing and cooperative thinking.

We invited the client scorecard administrators in attendance to present mini case studies. What a great line-up. Here were some of the highlights:

Miami-Dade County shared how their Office of Strategic Business Management guides the agenda, tone, and logistics for hundreds of monthly department and cross-functional scorecard business reviews.  Also exciting was their ability to re-sequence the cascading of strategic objectives ahead of department budget allocation.

Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals demonstrated how they load large amounts of data (everything from finance to satisfaction) within minutes into ActiveStrategy from both structured and extremely unstructured data sources. Also highlighted was how they use project portfolio functionality to implement and sustain Six Sigma efforts at the health system.

Westinghouse Nuclear Services showcased a creative solution for a visually attractive navigation system, allowing executive users to easily find their scorecards, dashboards, and project portfolios using Visual Map functionality.

NATO recapped how they tackled business reviews of the command's very large program of work (POW) using Program Group Portfolio Reports.  Participants then brainstormed NATO-like job titles for themselves (the "Supreme Director of Strategy Management" was a popular pick).

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs highlighted their approach for cascading strategic objectives throughout the Chief Business Office through the creative use of cascading matrix tools and naming conventions.

If you'd like to learn more about these topics and the presentations, please post a comment below and I'd be happy to get you more details. If you'd like to read an overview of the Executive Track, see this post.

 

Reflections from ActiveStrategy's 2010 Client Conference

What do you get when you bring together numerous knowledge seeking, high performing leaders from the likes of NATO, Jefferson Health System, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Westinghouse (just to name a few) to discuss performance management, effective measurement, and strategy execution?

You get an event that inspires attendees to raise the bar at their own organizations -- a few days that create a buzz of motivational energy and introspective questions like: What can I do as a leader to help raise our level of performance? What if we were to structure our performance management tools that way? What if we added better measures and more accountability to our approach?

Our recent Client Conference provided a venue that aroused these types of thoughts and many more. If you missed it, here are some highlights and reflections.

The event featured a mix of leaders from client organizations describing their performance management efforts, challenges they've faced, ways they've overcome them, the roles that leaders play in creating a culture of performance, how ActiveStrategy performance management software supports their efforts, and many other topics.

Meanwhile, ActiveStrategy software administrators shared more technical ideas and showcased best practices in a first-of-its-kind dedicated track. You can read a recap of that track in this post.

We also made two product-related announcements of note. One is the official release of iRound,    
which is a new addition to our mobile applications. Two years ago we introduced ActiveStrategy Mobile, which allows you to view your ActiveStrategy scorecards and performance metrics from an iPhone or iPod Touch. This new application, iRound, takes it from another angle, letting you easily collect almost any kind of data -- such as survey information, photos from physical inspections of stores or facilities, checklists from on-site compliance visits -- on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. The collected data can be wirelessly uploaded, automatically rolled-up, and be presented as part of a dashboard, briefing book, or other presentation view within ActiveStrategy Enterprise. One healthcare client is already conducting physical plant rounds using this application and we found lots of ideas in the Client Conference audience for other applications in manufacturing, government, and retail.

We also announced the launch of a brand new blog, AS Insights, which will focus entirely on tips and tricks related to ActiveStrategy performance management software. Here at The Glue, we'll keep focusing on the methodologies related to performance management and strategy execution. If you're a current ASE user or are thinking about performance management software, please visit AS Insights and subscribe to receive email updates while you're there! 

What I always find remarkable about getting our clients together is how themes resonate across all types of organizations -- from healthcare to government to nuclear services. It's highly energizing when you get so many people together who are all passionate about improving organizational performance. In fact one leader from a military organization actually described it as the most inspiring day he'd had in his professional career.

Of the various presentations, there were several that really hit home for a number of the attendees. From a performance management leadership perspective, it was evident that successful organizations have executive leaders that 1) create shared meaning, 2) promote ownership of the whole, and 3) create a common line of sight (read more about that concept in this post).

If course it's hard to summarize the knowledge sharing and the key takeaways from this event into one nice package; but if I had to, I would borrow from the presentation made by Ron Burd at the end of the second day. Ron is the EVP, Strategy & Organizational Development at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals. Ron's high-level advice was:

1. Make sure your mission, vision, and values are aligned  (and that they are driven by the CEO and C-suite members)
2. Select your metrics carefully
3. Have initiatives that will move the metrics
4. Use a system that will utilize and sustain the measures and the initiatives

As with any significant program or change management endeavor, leadership plays an absolutely essential role in getting it started, and making sure it's sustainable. Just as important, as we saw in the presentations and discussions from our client leaders, are the approaches and having the right tools.

We hope you'll join us for our 2011 Conference next spring. Watch for a "save the date" later this year.

Using Spreadsheets for Performance Management: Why They Work and Why They Don’t - Part 5 (Data Collection)

It's been a few months, but I'd like to continue my series on the pros and cons of using Excel spreadsheets for performance management. In my last post in this series, I talked about how Excel is good for housing data but not good at supporting the actions that drive results.

This time, I'm going to discuss why Excel fails when it comes to data collection.

Okay, I know you spreadsheet fanatics out there (you know who you are) are getting all riled up. “But you can import .csv (comma separated values) files into Excel. You can pull in data from ODBC (relational) sources.” True, you can do those things. The operative word is YOU.

The fact is, if you are trying to collect data, say for a management scorecard, from many different sources and many different people, Excel stinks. Just imagine trying to collect data that needs to get into one Excel scorecard every month -- from 20 different people. They're probably each going to send you an email with their separate spreadsheets and leave it up to you to cut and paste it into the scorecard. Sounds like fun.

Or they could each go into the scorecard spreadsheet and enter their data themselves. Except whenever one person is in the file, nobody else can edit and save it. But they can open it as a read only version and save it with a different name. And they will. And you will have a mess. People will inevitably enter data in the wrong places and they will overwrite your carefully constructed cell calculations.

The mess and aggravation of using Excel to collect and maintain performance data from many sources increases exponentially as the number of people and sources increase. There is a better way, as we will see at the end of this series. (Want to skip ahead to the answers at the back? Check out a webinar that I recently conducted on this topic: request the recording here).

It might be hard to believe, but though I'm already on part 5 of this series, there are still some problems with using Excel for performance management that I haven’t discussed. Next time, I'll tackle the issue of accountability.

In the meantime, tell me if you agree or disagree with me on this one. If you're one of those spreadsheet fanatics I mentioned and think you've solved these issues, I want to hear your perspective.

ActiveStrategy Enterprise -- an Aspirin for Organizational Performance?

Some things are good for you in so many ways, you feel like a fool if you don’t use them. Aspirin, for instance, is good for your headache, can save you during a heart attack, may reduce the risk of certain cancers, and may even help prevent cataracts. Exercise is another great example. It helps your health, your looks, your disposition, and gives you a hobby. Now here's one you probably didn't know about: ActiveStrategy Enterprise (ASE) performance management software. Really!!

O.K., I know. It sounds like a stretch, but bear with me while I explain.

I recently assisted an organization with their application for a state-level Baldrige-based award. The organization has well deployed scorecards in ASE and they conduct regular Business Reviews within the software, drilling into the scorecards to discuss performance and root causes of problems. They will get Baldrige points in the “Leadership” category for establishing and maintaining a systematic approach to moving the organization toward their vision (see illustration depicting Baldrige categories below) . And they'll get big points in “Strategic Planning” for having a well defined approach to planning and plan deployment.

They use customer input to refine their metrics, and so will “score” in the “Customer Focus” category.  Don’t get me started on “Measurement and Knowledge Management.” ASE provides accessible data on everything that is critical to performance and is a one-stop-shop for finding and sharing success stories and methodologies that "all hands" should be aware of. 

As for the required use of comparison data and benchmarks, ASE keeps it in view and part of on-going analysis of operations. Even if you don’t use the “Personal Goals Management” feature of ASE (which enables employee-level scorecards), you still get a lot of the "Workforce Focus" that Baldrige requires by making it easy for everyone to see how projects affect the big picture.

Using Spreadsheets for Performance Management: Why They Work and Why They Don’t - Part 4: Driving Action

If you’ve been following my previous posts in this series…and also know me and/or ActiveStrategy, you may have been wondering: Why is he praising Excel? Wasn’t ActiveStrategy created to replace Excel and other manual tools for performance management?

Yes, that’s true. And it’s also true that Excel is a great tool for the specific reasons and applications I blogged about.

But if you’re really trying to drive results at an enterprise level – trying to achieve the strategic outcomes your organization needs (and who isn’t?) – Excel is simply the wrong tool for that job. When it comes to performance management, Excel has a tendency to lead you down a swirling rat hole of bad data and missed opportunities, or help you build a performance management framework that will collapse under its own weight. I know. I’ve been there.

Why do I say this? Because although Excel is good with data, it is terrible for tracking action, ensuring accountability, and supporting a community of users that are trying to march together toward better performance and results.

Let’s first look at how Excel falls down when it comes to driving action.

As I’ve discussed before, data is only one ingredient for successful performance management. Another critical ingredient is action. The actions people take to learn why performance isn’t hitting targets. The actions people need to take to get performance back on track. Even the mundane actions people take to collect and report data and explain performance in one place. All of these actions are critical to improving rather than reporting results. And it is here that Excel begins to fall down.

Excel is, by its nature, a single file of data. You can open it and run some macros that do things, but in general it isn’t going to actively move people along to complete actions. For example:

• Excel won’t email a person and/or the boss when he/she needs to explain why a measure didn’t hit its target.
• Excel won’t capture the complete history of a portfolio of initiatives/strategic projects as they relate to the performance of a measure.
• Excel doesn't make it easy to capture action items during performance reviews or offer reminders and easy ways to follow up to make sure those action items get done.
• Excel doesn’t understand the organization’s reporting hierarchy, so it won’t provide managers with a simple view of what their teams are working on.

These are just a few examples -- some of which might be beyond what you're currently thinking about doing in a spreadsheet-based Scorecard or performance management framework. But support for these and other actions is critical if you really want to drive results. So here are some early warning signs that your performance management framework is starting to outgrow Excel:

• If you’ve started to think your single line “status” cells are not doing the trick, you are approaching the danger zone.
• If your users are adding a paragraph or two of explanation to a cell and making the spreadsheet unwieldy, you may be in trouble.
• If you are spending hours trying to format workbooks to print nicely, you are starting to feel the pain. 

Trying to create additional workbooks to hold longer explanations or to hold project milestones and status updates won’t solve the problem – it will make it worse. Maybe a very smart Excel administrator could overcome some of these problems. But, as you will see in my future posts, Excel's inability to drive action is only the tip of the iceberg.

Using Spreadsheets for Performance Management: Why They Work and Why They Don’t - Part 3

Note: This is a new series in which I'll be discussing the pros and cons of using spreadsheet tools for performance management. See the intro/background post and part 2 (it's everywhere and it's easy).

Part 3: Pros – Excel is powerful and flexible.

Long ago, on my first day of my first job, I made a fool of myself. My new boss was describing some things I’d be doing and used the phrase “add new breaks to existing reports.” I asked what breaks were. He looked at me stunned and said “Good lord, haven’t you ever written a program?”

Well I had written lots of programs to get my degrees in Computer Science. But in school we wrote programs that did things. In the real world, most people wrote programs that generated reports. Sure there were tools to help, but creating a report basically meant writing a program to get, assemble, format, and print data.

Skip forward to today. Yes, lots of people still write programs to generate reports. But I’d bet most reports are made with Excel. That “break” the tripped me up is simply a column subtotal. Excel makes it easy to have any number of levels of subtotals. You can show all levels, pick your level, or drill though levels. You can automatically color code different summary levels. You can specify headers and footers.

Excel makes it easy to generate reports with nicely formatted data and charts. There are built in templates to get you started. You can create just about and chart you can thing of and tweak it’s colors, data points, legends, series labels, and on and on and on.

Mere mortals can even pull data from databases to generate reports. Heck, some people use Excel as a database. It works great for disciplined managers who can get a report exactly like the want it as well as for type of manager that changes what they want to look at every month.

Excel is also more powerful than most people think. If you are really adventurous (or crazy) you can have spreadsheets with 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns. That would give you enough cells to record the name of every person on earth. And the names of their pets.*

So Excel is a flexible, powerful reporting solution. Next time we will see that it is also an analysis tool. Then we will see how this ease of use, flexibility, and power induces an unwarranted sense of security for people trying to use it to really drive business results.

In the meantime, if you'd like a sneak peek into some of the challenges organizations face trying manage scorecards and dashboards in Excel, check out our "Top 10" list of signs your scorecards have outgrown Excel.

*(believe me, I did the math)

Scorecards in Government: How Carson City Went From "0 to 60" Fast

Join us this Wednesday, August 26th for a free webinar case study of one small government -- Carson City, NV, population 58,000 -- and their rapid implementation of scorecards, performance measures, and ActiveStrategy Enterprise software to automate the framework.

This session will be helpful for any public sector organization -- as well as other organizations with lean resources -- interested in "kick starting" a performance management and measurement effort.

The webinar runs from 2-3 pm Eastern Daylight Time this Wednesday (8/26). To register follow this link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/685658001

Despite very limited resources, Carson City government has gone from having only a loosely defined strategy and a predominantly reactive culture -- to having a comprehensive top-level scorecard, several cascaded scorecards, and a total of almost 700 new performance metrics automated and reviewed in software -- all in less than one year.

During this webinar, you'll hear directly from Linda Ritter, the former City Manager who is managing this effort for Carson City as a special project. She’ll talk about why and how she got the effort started, who has been involved, and what results they’ve seen to date.

We’ll include time at the end of the session to answer your questions.

If you’re unable to attend the webinar live, but are interested in the topic, please register anyway. We’ll send you a link to view the recording after the webinar.

Upcoming Webinar: What To Do When Your Scorecards Outgrow Excel

Almost all organizations create their first scorecards in Excel and PowerPoint, but most tend to outgrow manual tools like these once performance management becomes more pervasive in their organizations.  Keeping track of, updating, and publishing multiple levels of cascaded scorecards simply becomes too labor intensive to manage with tools that weren’t designed for this critical job.

In this free webinar on Wednesday, July 22nd at 2pm EDT (11am PDT), you'll see ActiveStrategy Enterprise -- software that was designed explicitly to enable performance management. We’ll show how it automates KPIs, scorecards, dashboards, initiatives, trend charts, strategy maps, briefing books, and more – allowing you to focus on performance, rather than on manually gathering and updating scorecards.

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals is one organization that made the transition from manual scorecards to automated performance management using ActiveStrategy Enterprise. During this webinar, we’ll be conducting a live Q&A session with Wyeth Pharmaceutical’s Jennifer Peck about her organization’s use of ActiveStrategy software, which extends back to 2001. As the Senior Director, Strategy Management & Initiatives for Wyeth’s Global Clinical Team, she will discuss how ActiveStrategy Enterprise changed the way her team manages performance, how her team and Wyeth’s leaders use the software, and what value it brings to Wyeth.

We’ll also include time at the end of the session to answer your questions.

We hope you can join us for the webinar. If you’re unable to attend it live but are interested in the topic, please register anyway. We’ll send you a link to view the recording after the webinar.

If you'd like to see any of our previously recorded webinars, visit www.activestrategy.com/webinar