Executing the Balanced Scorecard in Your Organization: Should You Invest in BSC Training?

So, you want to use the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) as a framework to help your organization execute its strategy.  Should you invest in BSC training courses for staff?

Implementing the BSC is a change initiative that requires organizational change management practices accompanying its rollout.  You can pay for training for your staff and have them sit through a three-day course in a classroom and they will probably be able to pass a test to get some sort of certification, but will they actually know how to implement the BSC?

A simple analogy would be medical training.  Doctors do not just go to medical school, take a test, and then go straight into practice, they have to intern and go through a residency before they get their medical license.

The same goes for implementing business processes like the BSC.  You have to learn by doing.  That is why we use the “train the trainer” and method when helping organizations implement a BSC.  There are consultants out there who will look at your strategy, talk to a few leaders in your organization, and then give you a Balanced Scorecard.  Is that really your scorecard? Because it is not a recipe for success.

You have to work with people throughout the organization to create the scorecard in order to build ownership and buy-in to the BSC.  The individuals in the organization need to feel that they participated in developing the scorecard and it is “theirs” rather than something that was thrust upon them.

In addition, the process of working cross-functionally as well as vertically throughout the organization to build the scorecard helps to align people around the strategy and to understand how they fit into your organization’s strategic execution. 

When team members roll up their sleeves to do the work to build the scorecard, they understand how the strategic measures will help incentivize the right behavior while enabling the organization to track progress and strategic initiatives will ensure the right the proper resources are allocated to strategic projects.  These are things that you can’t learn in a training course.