Introduction
My last article on revitalizing your performance management solution (Part 3) discussed how to develop a winning project plan. In this article, we will start to discuss the initial steps to execute the performance management solution identified in your project plan.
Your performance management solution will be based on the results of your organizational assessment. For illustration purposes, I am going to use the same hypothetical company as presented in Part 2 of this series. The results of this company revealed that the information generated from its current Corporate Performance Management (CPM) system was mainly for reporting purposes, and not focusing on other performance management activities, such as implementing/managing strategy, managing day-to-day operations, and meeting its current business needs.
Assuming you are responsible for the development and the implementation for the performance management solution for this hypothetical company, your business case has been approved and it includes the following proposed solutions:
• An Executive level scorecard; and,
• Business Line scorecards linked to the each strategic objective included in the executive level scorecard.
In addition, you and your project team developed a project plan to develop, test and implement this solution. Now, it’s time to execute what you have planned. The rest of this article will discuss the initial steps to execute the project plan using the hypothetical company as an example.
Initial Steps in Executing your Project Plan
Step 1 - Determine the Organization’s Strategies
Since the organization is not fully utilizing information to implement its strategy, the first step in executing your project plan will be to determine what the organizational strategies are. This can be achieved by reviewing the strategic objectives presented in the organization’s business and strategic plans and speaking with key executives who can articulate and describe the organization’s strategies.
Step 2 - Develop the Executive Scorecard
Once the review is complete, I would recommend that you use the information you gathered from the executive interviews and the organization’s business and strategic plans to develop a high-level strategy map. The strategy map should prioritize the needs for the organizational objectives to be achieved in order for the organization to implement its strategies and the “cause and effect” relationship between each of these objectives. In this context, cause and effect relationship implies that the contribution by achieving each of the objectives are intertwined. A statement such as “decreased processing times will lead to higher productivity and quicker delivery time, which will result in higher client satisfaction” is an example that illustrates a series of cause and effect relationships.
Step 3 - Develop Business Line Scorecard
After the high-level strategy map is in place, I would present and validate this strategy map with the executive team in a workshop setting. During the workshop, I would ask the executives to articulate what success will look like once these objectives are met. After determining what success will look like once the organization’s strategic objectives are met, you will have a good sense of what the executive performance measures are. The strategy map along with the executive performance measures together form part of the executive level scorecard.
Now that you have the objectives mapped out for the highest level of the organization, you will want to hold another series of workshops with key managers across the organization to review the executive strategy map and measures. During these workshops, ask managers to describe the objectives their business lines would need to achieve in order for it to contribute to the executive strategic objectives. During the workshops, you will also want to ask managers to provide an example of how their business line might look if it met its objectives and how meeting these business line objectives would contribute to the executive level objectives. Once you have completed these workshops, you will have a good idea of the performance measures to be used by the business lines.
After these workshops are conducted, you will have the formation of an executive level scorecard along with the formation of branch level scorecards that are linked to each of the executive objectives.
Final Thoughts
The secret in using this technique is to ensure you ask managers and executives what success will look like once you achieved a particular objective and ask for an example. This is a quick and effective way to develop key performance indicators and, in one workshop, you can map out the respective strategies and develop key performance indicators. Most initiatives take much longer to complete both tasks.
In the next article of this series, I will discuss how to set targets.
This performance management series is an integral part of a book I am currently writing, your comments and feedback about these articles would be much appreciated.
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