W“If your team members don’t know if they are winning, they are on their way to losing.”
If you don’t think keeping score is important, check out any backyard basketball game. Watch how everyone plays when they are “playing” versus when someone starts to keep score. Quite a difference isn’t there?
The same holds true in every other endeavor. If we aren’t keeping score we are probably cheating ourselves and certainly playing at our best.
Last week we talked about the importance of tracking lead measures so we can accomplish our lag measures. If we don’t track our lag and lead measures, we won’t know if we are winning the game and on track to meet our goals.
What good does it do if only a few people at the top of your organization chart know the score? Bowling through a curtain isn’t much fun…
“Great teams know at every moment if they are winning. If they don’t know, they cannot adjust their plan to win.”
How do great teams always know the score? They have a great scoreboard!
A great scoreboard does a lot of great things. Here are a few:• Develops Trust – Clear reporting shows that people are doing what they committed to do. Keeping our word is foundational for trust. • Saves Time – People are curious and want to know the score. Keeping one central and highly visible source saves everyone time. • Motivates & Engages – Seeing a number you are responsible for on the board immediately boosts motivation and engagement.
We’ve already discussed that we set way too many goals, so you’ve trimmed your list down to one wildly important goal, two goals at the most. Then we discussed how to track lead measures. Now that we are focused on our #1 wildly important goal and we are measuring the right things, we’ve got to make our measurement so visible that it cannot be missed.
I’m talking about very visible. I mean everyone who walks into your office must ask about that huge thing (missile, thermometer, whatever…) that you have in your lobby and pasted all over your office that is displaying the tracking of your #1 wildly important goal. Every employee who logs into your internal server should see an update on the goal. It must be everywhere!
If I can walk through your office or manufacturing plant and find a single employee who does not know what your #1 goal is for this period (quarter, year, etc.) and what his or her role is in accomplishing that goal, you (the leader) have failed this test.
I heard a great story about a reporter who was interviewing employees at NASA when we were working to put a man on the moon. The reporter had been asking employees about their jobs. When he asked the janitor what he did for NASA, the janitor replied, “I’m putting a man on the moon.” That janitor had a perfect “line of sight” from his job to NASA’s #1 goal. Everyone who worked at NASA had the job of putting a man on the moon and we did it (the “moon shot” story is a worthy one and will receive its own blog post). Do all your employees have a clear “line of sight” from their job to your organization’s #1 goal?
Here are 4 questions from “The 4 Disciplines of Execution”that you need to ask to know if you have a compelling scoreboard for your #1 goal.1. Is it simple? Can everyone on your team understand at a glance if they are winning or losing? This is why you see simple “red/green” scorecards in great workplaces. Everyone knows at a glance how they are doing.2. Can I see it easily? As I mentioned earlier, it must be everywhere and over the top visible.3. Does it show lead and lag measures? We covered this in last week’s post. You’ve got to be tracking the measures that drive the outcome, the lead measures. Having the lag measures on the same board helps you determine if your inputs (lead measures) are creating the outcomes (lag measures) you desire. 4. Can I tell at a glance if I’m winning? Once you’ve broken your larger goal into steps, your entire team should know what winning looks like today. They cannot wait until 15 days after the close of the month to know if they are winning. The information must be ridiculously clear and timely.
Congratulations! If you’ve answered these questions in the affirmative, you have a compelling scorecard for your organization. If you don’t, why not?
Next week, we’ll finish up with the topic everyone loves – Accountability!
As always, you can reach me at 229.244.1559 if I can help in any way.
Curt Fowler is President of Fowler & Company(http://valuesdrivenresults.com/) and Director at Fowler, Holley, Rambo & Stalvey (http://valdostacpa.com/). He is dedicated to helping leaders create and achieve a compelling vision for their organizations. Curt is a syndicated business writer and keynote speaker. He has an MBA in Strategy and Entrepreneurship from the Kellogg School, is a CPA, and a pretty good guy as defined by his wife and four children.
Have a business growth topic you’d like me to cover? Send suggestions to cfowler@valuesdrivenresults.com.
