Our weekly Scorecard has thirteen different metrics, but when we miss a target, the owner of that metric simply explains it away as a temporary issue instead of resolving it. How do we transition from merely documenting misses to using the Scorecard to spark real IDS® sessions?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If your weekly Scorecard is met with excuses rather than action, your team is treating it as a historical report instead of an operational steering wheel. To fix this, you must change how you run the Scorecard review during your Level 10 Meeting™. When a metric is missed, the owner of that metric must not be allowed to give a lengthy explanation or make excuses. The only acceptable response is to state whether the metric is on-track or off-track, and if it is off-track, to drop it down to the issues list. Once it is on the issues list, the team must use the IDS® process to identify the root cause of the miss. Is the target unrealistic? Is there a process breakdown? Or is there a capacity issue? By stripping the emotion and the excuses out of the room, you force the team to focus on the facts. The Scorecard is designed to highlight operational gaps early so you can solve them before they impact your financial results. If you allow leaders to explain away misses, you undermine the accountability of the entire system and render your Scorecard useless.