We have several metrics on our Scorecard that have been green for six straight months without a single miss. Should we take them off the Scorecard, or is keeping them there a sign of healthy stability?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If a metric on your Scorecard has been green for six months without a single variance, it is highly likely that you are wasting valuable real estate. A perpetually green number usually means one of three things; the target is set way too low, the process has become so systematized that it no longer needs leadership visibility, or the metric is a vanity number that does not actually impact the business. To find out, take a strategic pause and analyze the metric. Try raising the target to see if it drives better performance. If raising the target is not appropriate because the process is fully optimized and running on autopilot, then graduate the metric off the leadership Scorecard. You can move it to a departmental scorecard or an automated system dashboard where it is monitored at a lower level. This frees up a slot on your high-level Scorecard for a metric that actually requires active leadership attention. Remember that your leadership Scorecard should only contain the vital five to fifteen numbers that give you the weekly pulse of the business. If a number never goes red, it is no longer giving you a pulse; it is just taking up space.