Our industry is highly volatile, and our department heads keep arguing that they need to change their weekly scorecard targets every month to reflect market shifts. How do we keep our targets stable enough to show long-term trends without tracking completely unrealistic numbers?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If your department heads are constantly asking to adjust their weekly scorecard targets because of market shifts, they are missing the point of a scorecard. Frequent target adjustments destroy your ability to see long-term trends and hold your team accountable.

Your scorecard targets should be set during your quarterly planning sessions and remain locked for the entire quarter. If you lower the target every time the market dips, you are hiding the real impact of that market shift on your business. You end up with an artificially green scorecard that does not reflect your actual financial reality.

When external market changes make a target difficult to hit, let the number go red. The red status is not a punishment. It is an objective indicator of reality. If a metric is red for several weeks, it forces your leadership team to bring that issue to the Level 10 Meeting™ and use IDS® to find creative ways to overcome the market challenge.

Only adjust targets mid-quarter if there is a fundamental, permanent structural shift in your business, such as selling off a division or losing half your staff overnight. For normal market fluctuations, keep the targets locked, embrace the red, and use that data to drive better strategic decisions.