Keeping a Balance in your Organisation's Performance

by Wendy Raikes

Often we talk about keeping a balance in our life, keeping a balanced perspective, keeping a balanced portfolio and keeping a bank balance! Now many of us talk about keeping a balance in managing and measuring our organisation's performance.

What are we looking for in our
performance management systems?
One of the key challenges we face in private or public sector organisations is integrating our systems and our people to achieve organisational goals. We need systems that will mean something to people at different levels, and will to help employees turn activities into outputs that contribute to the organisation.

A key tool is a performance management system. The old performance appraisal schemes concentrated only on individual performance. Performance management should come from measuring the performance of the whole organisation. The links between individual, team, unit and corporate performance need to be understood so that individual behaviour ultimately contributes to the corporate objectives.

An approach that can help
The Balanced Scorecard, developed by Kaplan and Norton1, is a relatively new technique that is quickly gaining acceptance as a useful tool. The scorecard allows the organisation to link team and individual performance to its organisational goals. A number of Australian - based organisations are already using the Balanced Scorecard successfully including manufacturers, financial institutions, service organisations, government agencies, local government and universities.

Recently we have introduced middle and senior managers in the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority, Sydney Operations Directorate, to the technique so that they may use it as part of their team - based approach to managing performance.

Bringing balances to managing performance
The Balanced Scorecard provides key balances:

• between external measures for stakeholders and customers and internal measures of business processes and learning
  
• between measures from past efforts and measures that guide future performance
  
• between short-term financial performance and long-term growth opportunities.

We believe the Balanced Scorecard is a useful approach to Business Performance Management and Improvement.

Does your performance management system:

• support the organisation's vision, mission and values?
  
• link individual and team objectives to the organisation's objectives?
  
• focus on the future not the past?
  
• contribute to strategies for building future strength?
  
• track performance in critical dimensions?
  
• provide opportunities for ongoing review, open discussion and feedback?
  
• ensure that all who participate in it see it as a fair system?
  
• give a balanced and fair assessment of the person or team being reviewed?
  
• give a balanced and fair assessment of the objectives and strategies being reviewed?

If not, you may like to discuss the "Balanced Scorecard" approach with us.

Twyford Consulting Newsletter July 1998