ARTICLES
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Professional
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About
Innovation Network
- P r o f e s s i o n a l _ D e v e l o p m e n t -
By Jack Nickerson
The project is "Measures That Matter," an 18-week effort to develop more effective measures for running the business, using a lot of the concepts from Kaplan and Norton's "Balanced ScoreCard: Translating Strategy Into Action."
The agenda for the half-day workshop to introduce the managers to the project and the concepts was laid out as an 18-hole golf course (reproduced in four color) -- showing the distance (in minutes), the greens, the tees, the
sandtraps and water hazards -- each of which was deliberately placed, depending on the topic. The "holes" progressed from "context" to "pro- posal," on to "Strawman Measures." The Driving Range was for generating ideas that didn't necessarily have to be focused on the hole. The Putting Practice was for getting into action on "gimmes" -- that is, sinking a few good ideas that didn't have to wait for the whole strategic integration process. Of course, there is a 19th hole for celebrations.
The 18-week project was also presented as an 18-hole golf course. The first holes (weeks) were focused on planning and aligning on strategic objectives. The next 9 holes (weeks) focused on applying the creative problem solving process to generating ideas (Practice Measures), evaluating and converging on alternatives (Prototype Measures), getting feedback and refining the measures (ProForma Measures) and committing to a (Work- ing Set) of measures -- for which speci- fications would be developed for Information Systems to generate reports.
The 18-hole agenda has already been effective in keeping us on track in its 2nd week. When the CEO proposed a follow-up review meeting for next week, I informed him that would put us behind in the 18-hole schedule. He immediately revised the timing to Thursday of the same week, so we could stay on schedule!
Some golf metaphor features include:
1. A scorecard, used for feedback on performancee for each hole (A Hole in One, an eagle, Par, Bogie or Out of Bounds). Instead of Plusses and Changes, we asked for Gimmes and Handicaps for each hole.
2. USGA Rules (no, not US Golf Association, but Us Getting Along rules), including:
a. Out of Bounds: A closed mind. Suspend judgment until you've thoroughly considered the viability of a new idea.
b. Local Rules: Unlimited mulligans in idea generation phases.
c. Repair Ball Marks on Green: Learn from your mistakes and share the lesson with folks who will be following you.
3. A full set of clubs, including
a. the driver: common vision
b. 4 iron: teamwork
c. 9 iron: No blaming; just learning and fixing
d. putter: make it work easier
4. PGA tour. PGA is not the Professional Golf Association. It stands for: Possibility Generating Action for Producing Great Accomplishments with People Growing Awesomely.
Our challenge is to determine what measures will enable us to constantly improve our score, to bring all the clubs we'll need, to know which clubs to play, to enjoy playing, to have fun, and to want to keep on playing, for the fun of it and for the challenge of getting better and better.
My purpose is to break the myth that measures have to be only financial, or only outcomes, or dry and dull, or onerous, or threatening. My goal is for each and every employee to appreciate measures that enable each and every one of us to play the best we can, now and to improve at the game we want to play, beyond what we can imagine. Measures that get us up every morning, eager to go hit a few more, for the challenge, for the camaraderie, for the sheer enjoyment of it.
Jan Nickerson, president of The Prosperity Collaborative, Inc., can be reached at 508-358-7146 or JaNickrson@aol.com