I was reading an ExtremeTech article today titled "Lies, damned lies, and benchmarks." The article was about measuring performance in mobile phones, which isn't all that interesting to me, but I started thinking about some of the concepts in the article and how they related to the Balanced Scorecard. The author, Joel Hruska, threw in a chart about Accuracy vs Precision that I thought was particularly relevant.

Earlier on this blog we discussed the keys to successful implementation of a government Balanced Scorecard. Leadership, communication and stakeholder engagement are the keys to success. A major challenge, however, is finding the right measures for your government Balanced Scorecard. It is important to find measures appropriate for the level of government, measures that can illustrate cause and effect linkages and those that can drive action at the right level.

Peel back almost any case study of a failed organization, and you'll see, more than anything else, an example of a failure of alignment. Alignment, at its simplest, is the entire organization working towards a common goal. It seems so simple, but in practice is really difficult to achieve. Why is this? Is it just some perverse quirk of human nature? Or can alignment happen?

For those of you that came to the Summit in March of 2011, you would have to remember Maria Cristalli from Hillside. Her presentation received the highest rank of any presentation given (even higher than our keynotes from last year). To make it more remarkable, she was the last presentation on the last day of the conference. We are excited to have her back for the 2012 event.

I'm happy to announce that the Boys and Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico will be presenting at the upcoming Mission-Driven Summit on March 6-8, 2012. This is the premier conference for mission driven organizations (governments, nonprofits, associations, and education organizations). Keynote speakers include David Norton, co-creator of the Balanced Scorecard concept, and Daniel Pink, author of Drive and other books about changing the world of work.

In a Harvard Business Review blog yesterday, Raymond V. Gilmartin argued that CEOs need a new set of beliefs. What's surprising -- especially for those of us that work in the mission-driven sector -- is that this even bears saying. But what struck me the most in the post was that Professor Gilmartin (the past CEO of Merck) argues that "Purpose, meaning, and recognition are more powerful motivators than economic self-interest, and large external rewards can reduce intrinsic motivation."

Why haven't we found the silver bullet that will magically, like Jaime Escalante in "Stand and Deliver," come and save our struggling schools? The answer, quite simply, is because there isn't one. While sound bites make good press, they make really bad education policy. What works in McLean, VA may not work in Anacostia, MD. And what works in Pittsford, NY, may not work in Rochester, NY. Real education reform needs to start with management reform. And here's how I propose we do it.

I promised an update of some of Dr. Norton's materials from his presentation in Mexico back in July. One of the first topics he spoke about is the concept of "managing strategy." It doesn't sound very revolutionary, but most organizations go through a process of developing a strategy every 3 to 5 years and then putting that strategy on a shelf. They may look at the strategy annually and then go through the strategy refresh process again in 3-5 years. Best practice organizations, according to David Norton, spend time managing their strategy.

Now that the lockout is officially over, the amount of conversations revolving around football has picked up significantly. Football is something that I enjoy very much and like talking about whenever I get the chance. As a consultant, I also enjoy conversations centered on strategic management and the excitement that comes with each client. Over the weekend, I was talking to a friend about my job and, as most conversations between two, twenty-four year old males do, the topic eventually turned to football. In some odd way, this got me thinking about the similarities between football and strategic management. I know, a weird comparison, but stick with me and I think you will see where these thoughts came from.

Over the past weekend, I was able to spend some time with one of my younger brothers. As younger siblings will do, he began asking me random questions. Eventually, the conversation turned to my work as an associate consultant with Ascendant. He became intrigued by the Balanced Scorecard and continued to ask general questions about the framework. As the conversation moved into more detail, a majority of the questions centered on the specific words and phrases that I was using. In response to these questions, I have decided to define some of the basic vocabulary that I use on a daily basis.