One of our core weekly Scorecard numbers has been red for six consecutive weeks, and our seat owner insists they are doing everything right but the system is broken. How do we determine if a red number is a people issue or a structural process issue?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a weekly Scorecard number remains red for multiple weeks, you must use your Level 10 Meeting to IDS the issue objectively, separating the person from the process. If the seat owner has the GWC (Gets It, Wants It, Capacity to Do It) for their role, and their individual activity levels are high, the red number is likely a sign of a structural system flaw. Start by mapping out the workflow that drives the metric. Ask if the target itself is realistic based on your current capacity and market conditions, or if the process has a bottleneck that is out of the owner's direct control. For example, if a sales seat is missing their closed won target despite making double the required outbound calls, the issue is not their activity level. It may be that your pricing is off, your target market has shifted, or the leads coming from marketing are unqualified. In this case, keeping the number on the Scorecard as red without adjusting the system or the target is demotivating and useless. You must either adjust the target to reflect reality or solve the upstream process bottleneck. However, if the data shows that the owner is consistently failing to complete the required activities, it is a people or execution issue that requires direct performance management. By using your weekly numbers to diagnose where the breakdown is occurring, you avoid playing the blame game. This objective approach keeps your team focused on fixing the business system rather than defending their personal performance.