Execution · Proving to Organising
A scoreboard the team keeps up itself
You and your team set up a board with a few numbers they update themselves, and you open it at the start of the meeting every week.
Does this sound familiar?
- The numbers sit in a spreadsheet with you or the controller, and get updated the evening before the meeting.
- There are forty numbers on the board. Nobody can tell in a few seconds whether you're winning.
- The first half hour of the weekly meeting is spent explaining the numbers.
- In the last week of the quarter it turns out you've been behind for two months.
Who it's for, and when
For founders and managers who have KPIs but notice the team doesn't know where it stands. In Proving, one board for the whole company is enough, with three to five numbers, and you still fill in a few yourself. From Organising onwards, every team has its own numbers and everyone fills in their own.
The model
“People play differently when they are keeping score.”
McChesney, Covey and Huling saw that teams start working differently as soon as they keep score themselves, the way a game of basketball changes once someone starts counting points. They separate the coach's scoreboard, with lots of numbers for the people in charge, from the players' scoreboard: simple, visible to everyone, and readable in a few seconds. This lesson is about the second one. The lesson Result KPIs and driver KPIs covers which numbers belong on it.
Keep it small. Per team, one or two results with the driver KPIs underneath, three to five numbers in all. For the leadership team, which looks across the whole company, Wickman suggests five to fifteen. Every number has one owner (the lesson An owner for every KPI), one cadence and a target. You can see whether you're winning because the current value sits next to the line showing where you should be by now: green from 100% of that line, amber from 80%, red below that.
A board comes alive when it's used at a fixed moment every week. The owner fills in their number before the meeting and, if it's amber or red, writes one sentence on why. The meeting opens with the board: five minutes, on track or not for each number. Anything off track isn't discussed there. It goes on the list of topics for later in the same meeting. How the rest of that meeting runs is in the lesson A meeting that's about something.
Chris McChesney, Sean Covey and Jim Huling, The 4 Disciplines of Execution (2012), discipline 3: Keep a Compelling Scoreboard. The number of figures and the weekly review come from Gino Wickman, the Scorecard in Traction (2007).
Few numbers
Three to five per team, five to fifteen for the leadership team. If it doesn't fit on one screen without scrolling, there are too many.
Visible
Everyone can see it, at any time. A report sitting in the managing director's folder is the coach's scoreboard.
You can see whether you're winning
The current value sits next to the line showing where you should be by now, not next to the whole quarterly target. Green, amber or red tells you at a glance.
The players keep it up
Whoever does the work fills in their own number, on a fixed day and in one cadence: weekly, monthly or quarterly.
Five minutes in the weekly meeting
At the start, for each number: on track or not. No explaining the green ones. Anything off track goes on the list to solve later.
Pitfalls
The numbers hour
Someone starts explaining every number, and half an hour later nothing has been solved. Just say on track or not. The explanation belongs with the topic on the list, and only for what's off track.
Mixing weeks and months
Filling in the same KPI weekly one time and monthly the next gives you two different numbers against the same target. Pick one cadence per KPI and stick to it.
Watch and read
Wickman's EOS channel in two and a half minutes: five to fifteen numbers, each with an owner and a weekly target, and what happens to a number that's off track.
Watch on YouTubeA short team huddle at Jack Stack's company, where employees put their own numbers on the board and talk them through.
Watch on YouTubeA supermarket working with the four disciplines: what it looks like on the shop floor, with the people doing the work.
Watch on YouTubeTo go further
The full talk by one of the authors on the four disciplines, with the scoreboard as the third. For anyone who wants the whole model.
Watch on YouTubeRead
The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals
Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, Jim Huling · 2012 · ISBN 9781451627053
Read the chapter on discipline 3. There's a Dutch edition, De 4 disciplines van uitvoering (ISBN 9789047006015).
View the bookTraction: Get a Grip on Your Business
Gino Wickman · 2011 · ISBN 9781936661831
The chapter on the Scorecard: five to fifteen numbers a week for the leadership team, and how to run through them in the weekly meeting.
View the bookApply it
- 1
Build the board with the team
Ask which few numbers show whether you're winning: the result, and what you do yourselves to get there. Move the rest to a different report.
- 2
Give every number an owner, a cadence and a target
Without a target the traffic light has no line. Set the target before the quarter starts. A weekly number gets filled in on Monday, for the week before.
- 3
Open the board at the start of the weekly meeting
Five minutes. Follow the agenda below. Anything off track goes on the list, with the owner's name next to it.
- 4
Stop filling things in yourself
If a number is blank, ask the owner and wait. Fill it in for them and it's your board again.
Examples
Agenda: the board in the weekly meeting
Before the meeting: everyone fills in their own numbers, plus one sentence on why for anything amber or red. 0:00 The board up on the screen. 0:01 For each number the owner says 'on track' or 'off track'. No explanations, no questions. 0:04 Anything off track goes on the list of topics, with the owner's name. 0:05 On to the rest of the agenda. That's where you pick which topics from the list you solve today.
An installation company
The planner kept track in a spreadsheet of how many jobs were finished on time. The engineers heard about it once a quarter. Now every crew lead fills in their own figure on Monday, and the board is on the screen in the canteen. In the third week two crews saw they were on amber, and swapped an engineer between them on their own initiative.
The sum: a revenue target against the line
Quarterly target: €1.2 million. After four of the thirteen weeks you're at €300,000. Against the whole target: 300,000 / 1,200,000 = 25%. That looks red. The line: 1,200,000 x 4 / 13 = roughly 369,000. Against the line: 300,000 / 369,000 = 81%. Amber. The sales lead adds a note that two large orders slipped to next week.
Do this in your own business
Everything up to here is free. What you fill in for your own business, you keep in Boldcaster.
- Go to the KPI Scoreboard. Everyone fills in their own KPI for the past week, month or quarter; for amber or red the screen asks for a note. From Bold Pro, you can pick a team at the top and see only that team's numbers.
- You look back on a situation from your own work. Only you can read what you write.
- You set a date with yourself, and on that day the app asks how it went.
- You assign the lesson to your team and see who has done it.
- The quiz counts towards your progress, and you see which lesson comes next.
Four weeks free. You'll land straight in this lesson.
Quiz
6 situations. You need 5 of 6 right. You can try again at any time.
1.Your controller updates the KPI report every Friday. The team barely looks at it. According to discipline 3, what helps most?
2.Your sales team's board has 22 KPIs, each with a chart. You want the team to use it. What do you do?
3.The quarterly target is 130 quotes. It's week 5 of 13 and you're at 45. What colour does the traffic light show?
4.In the weekly meeting every owner explains their numbers, the green ones too. Forty minutes later you've been round the board and nothing has been solved. What do you change?
5.A team lead wants to update the board only just before the quarterly meeting. What's the result?
6.Monday morning, the meeting starts in ten minutes. Two numbers on the board are still blank. You know roughly what they are. What do you do?
Nothing is saved here. In the app, the quiz counts towards your progress.
Read next
- An owner for every KPI · Every number on your scoreboard has one name: someone who fills it in each period, explains what's going on when it's amber or red, and decides for themselves what to do about it.
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