A very distraught woman (we’ll refer to her as Vera) recently called the Balanced Scorecard Institute office in panic.
Vera: “Hello? I need those flags. Can you please overnight the flags to me? It’s urgent!”
Us: “Excuse me? I think you may have the wrong number?”
Vera: “Isn’t this the Balanced Scorecard Institute?”
Us: “Yes, ma’am. But we don’t sell flags.”
Vera: “Yes, you do. My boss said so.”
Us: “Ummmmm….could you elaborate?”
Vera (in an exasperated tone): “Listen! My boss just announced that we are going to improve performance using a Balanced Scorecard. He sent us a memo that said each store is responsible for showing performance by using red, yellow and green flags. I’m a store manager and I am being held RESPONSIBLE! I called the other store managers and nobody has the flags. We all need to order those flags NOW! You ARE the Balanced Scorecard Institute, are you not?!?”
I really am not sure we ever adequately explained to her that the “flags” are a term meaning a visual representation of the level of performance around a target value for a strategic objective or measure, with green generally indicating good performance, yellow generally indicating satisfactory performance, or red indicating poor performance. And I’m pretty sure she thinks we are idiots for giving a complex response to a simple request to order some flags that she can wave.
For the record, I am not making fun of the caller herself. She was an intelligent woman and obviously a dedicated worker. But she was dreadfully misinformed and the source of the misinformation is the point of this blog.
My point is that her boss created angst and confusion in his organization by making an announcement with no explanation and no context. HE knows his strategy, HE knows how he wants to measure performance on it, HE created a balanced scorecard to do so (without teaching anyone what that means), and HE announced it to the world and then said “YOU are responsible!”
Don’t be that guy.
Many bosses / executives / leaders are really smart. They have a well-thought out strategy in their heads and they can make the leap from planning to execution…in their head. But they are better at internal conversation (in their own head) than they are at communicating with others. If this sounds familiar, let us help you bridge the gap between what you say and what your employees hear.
I’ve written another blog about this topic (Are Strategic Leaps of Logic Leaving You Dazed and Confused?), because this problem comes up over and over again.
Please contact us and let us help.
Or to learn more about how to translate your strategy into something that is clear to communicate in a way that employees can understand and effectively contribute to, we invite you to explore The Institute Way: Simplify Strategic Planning & Management with the Balanced Scorecard.
Gail is co-author of The Institute Way. With a career spanning over 30 years of strategic planning and performance management consulting with corporate, nonprofit, and government organizations, she enjoys speaking, training, and writing, sharing her experience with others. She currently is a Partner at Credera in Dallas, TX.