One of the foundational tools in EOS is the scorecard – the weekly refresh on the most important measurements in the company. As an executive, you should be able to take a look at the scorecard and know if the right activities are happening for the company to progress.
The Basics
The scorecard should be 5-15 activity-based metrics. While a normal dashboard may contain many outcome-based numbers (like Profit, Revenue, # employees etc), the EOS scorecard should be focused on the key activities. If the right activities are happening every week, more often than not you will get the outcomes you are targeting.
This also makes the scorecard focused on leading indicators (that look at what will happen) rather than lagging indicators (what has already happened). Many outcome-based indicators reflect the activities from a month ago – and it will take at least another month to see any change. By focusing on those key activities every week, you can make change every week, and correct problems before the snowball into showstoppers.
The Benefits
Having the scorecard updated weekly will also force issues to the surface – if the right activities are not happening, it sounds an alarm bell for the weekly meeting to IDS that issue.
Tips for a successful scorecard
- Each number should have a target. The target may change seasonally, depending on your business, but without a target it is not immediately clear if there is a problem.
- Each number should have an accountable owner to make sure that it is updated every week.
- If a number is off-track, it should be added to the Issues List. Ignore any hand-waving here – if the right activities are not happening, the team must understand why and find a long-term solution.
- A good question to ask when building the scorecard is: If this number is off-track, what would I do about it?
If you are looking to build your scorecard, reach out to us today!