In my book The Best Game, I talk about how running an organization has many similarities to playing a game. Both have:

  • Objectives

  • Rules

  • Players

  • Strategy

  • Competition

In fact, I truly think leading an organization is the best game there is!

Part of what makes any game fun is the thrill of competition, striving to be better and improve, which goes right along with knowing how you are doing. The score in a game points to the level of performance—against a competitor, a benchmark, or your own best effort.

Using ScoreBoards, sometimes called Scorecards, in your organization helps your team keep track of where they are in pursuit of their objectives or goals.

A ScoreBoard is an easily accessible, current, and visual display of strategically relevant performance data. ScoreBoards give an at-a-glance understanding of whether the organization is meeting its goals.

Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton in The Balanced Scorecard: Measures that Drive Performance say:

Think of the Balanced Scorecard as the dials and indicators in an airplane cockpit. For the complex task of navigating and flying a plane, pilots need detailed information about many aspects of the flight. They need information on fuel, airspeed, altitude, bearing, destination and other indicators that summarize the current and predicted environment. Reliance on one instrument can be fatal. Similarly, the complexity of managing an organization today requires that managers be able to view performance in several areas at once. 

ScoreBoards are:

  1. Performance-focused—feedback on the effective allocation of scarce and precious resources to get important goals done
  2. Visual—the viewer will understand the team’s performance at a glance
  3. Relevant—information that moves the organization toward achieving its strategic goals and that team members have ownership of
  4. Current—as close to real time as possible
  5. Accessible—quickly and easily available to view
  6. Understandable—in terms that everyone on the team can comprehend

In an organization, ScoreBoards should be everywhere!

Thoughtfully constructed ScoreBoards foster getting important stuff done the right way, at the right time, and at the right cost.
Success doesn’t just happen. It comes from relentless execution with feedback. It comes from repeating efficient processes built around a good idea.

ScoreBoards focus your team on the primary tasks that will move you toward achieving your organization’s overall goal.