As a make-things-happen kind of person, you want to know whether you and your team are getting important stuff done in the right way, at the right time, and for the right cost.
ScoreBoards help you track this important information.
But before you can know what would be helpful to record on your ScoreBoard, you need to clearly define what your objectives are for your organization. In other words, before you can score, you have to know what the goal is.
In The Best Game, I explain how you must start by clearly defining your organization’s Why in 8 Words or Less. This is a concise statement of why your organization exists in the form of verb/ target/ outcome.
Next, develop a set of Future Facts. These word picture sentences describe what success would look like if your organization were to successfully and completely fulfill its mission. They imagine what a “best day” would look like in the future. To make sure your Future Facts describe the whole organization, write at least one Future Fact in each of the following areas: financial, team, systems, and customers.
Then, develop a Manifesto. This describes the values behind what your organization does (or will do) to differentiate itself from other organizations. These also could be called your Rules of the Game.
Finally, build SMARTgoals. These are short-term, concrete objectives on which the organization is going to focus its scarce and precious resources to make its Why in 8 Words or Less happen. Ideally, you will create SMARTgoals to address each of the following areas: financial, team, systems, and customers.
When you have formulated your Why in 8 Words or Less, Future Facts, Manifesto, and SMARTgoals, you will have done the groundwork to put together a ScoreBoard that will help your team measure performance toward stated goals.