The Balanced Scorecard is extensively used in business, industry governmental structures and non-profit organisations.

The benefits of creating a “balanced” Balanced Scorecard Management System is

• Improved alignment is achieved
• Better communication internally and externally
• Improved monitoring in a disciplined framework

The Balanced Scorecard was developed in the early 1990’s by Drs Robert Kaplan and David Norton as a performance measurement framework. The core of this thinking was to move the performance discussion form financial Measure which generally measure past performance to more relevant measures that reflect present activity. The Balanced Scorecard then became an important change model in how non-financial measures influence strategy execution and operational efficiency.

Over the years the Balanced Scorecard has evolved through from a simple performance framework to a fully integrated management system. This integrated management system when implemented in a disciplined framework can help organisations align the thinking in the strategic planning process with the strategic execution models and then further align the strategy with focused operational activities.  In using an integrated management system approach, measures are able to be used effectively at all stages of the Balanced Scorecard Management System, so that effective monitoring of progress and delivery can be tracked.

In many cases worldwide there is an over emphasis on the “Scorecard” component, without enough time spent on developing resiliency in the “Balanced” component part of the Management system.  This creates huge unintended consequences in the execution of the strategic management plan in an organisation and results in major misalignment factors which in turn affect the performance management system of the organisation. The importance of “Balancing” the thinking and content that feeds into the Integrated Management systems becomes a critical success factor in an effective Balanced Scorecard implementation.

In the present economic climate world-wide and within Governmental structures relevant risk management thinking is taking a higher priority in organisation Balanced Scorecard Management Systems. This is an important development in any organisation, but should not create an imbalance as an over correction of previous gaps in past strategic plans.

The benefits of a mentorship programme achieve outcomes at many different levels; for the organisation, naturally for the beneficiaries of the programme the mentees and of course for the mentors as well. One of the clear benefits of the organisation is retaining organisational knowledge and process efficiencies in a business environment where people are becoming more “flexible” in their careers and tend to move job more regularly. This movement of staff and the knowledge and capabilities that go with them becomes a crippling process for business to deal with. The mentorship process needs to continually focus on these critical areas and is a key output of their mentorship programme goals.

The other critical area of successful mentorship programmes is the unlocking of skills and process capabilities of experienced staff to new staff to ensure the  efficiency strategies are reached sooner than later.

Some of the important hurdles that business faces with maintaining a mentorship programme are that some of the well-intended goals of the programme get zero rated in importance once operational deliverables and old management cultural techniques take a higher priority. The sustainability of the mentorship programme needs to be carefully managed by the programme champion. In certain cases the programme will be creating an expectation of supportive management while the culture of the organisation is still “command and control” in its manner of management execution. These divergent management approaches need to be well managed as the Mentorship Programme can also contribute to a change in the management culture.

The solution in sustaining a Mentorship Programme in an organisation is to understand it as a change management intervention and that it will in some cases will be part of the catalyst in changing the organisation and the people involved in the programme.

To achieve the critical outcomes of the Mentorship Programme of retaining critical knowledge in the organisation and unlocking experience and sharing that best practice with emerging talented employees , the Mentorship Programme needs to be aligned with talent and people development strategies as well as changes in management culture and the way things get done.

The performance management challenge in organisations has many dimensions in today’s business environment and creating focused initiatives to overcome these challenges is not a silver bullet approach. In many cases remuneration schemes are driving the performance system, which creates a number on long term consequences in organisational behaviour and culture. In other cases senior management are so focused on scorecard management to hold people accountable that the creation of the scorecard is not aligned with business focus areas, but rather a number of deliverable projects and tasks.

Challenge 1    Lack of Alignment

The first challenge is the lack of alignment due to various organisational processes being created in isolation.  The link between Strategy development, budgeting and operational planning is developed by different groups of people with different frameworks being used. The performance management system lacks alignment between individual performance, departmental performance and organisational delivery and so all systems default back to financial measurements.

Challenge 2    Lack of Measurements  

The second challenge happens at various levels of the organisation in that poor measures are developed, in many cases targets are set but no relevant measure is put in place. In other cases no data can be collected or is kept as evidence to track performance.

Challenge 3    Leadership and Management commitment

The Leadership and Management challenge has a huge impact on integrating and aligning a management system to deliver a comprehensive performance management system. The commitment and understanding of leadership and management of the requirements for achieving a workable performance system is critical to performance success.

Challenge 4    Managing of the performance system

Managing a performance system in an organisation requires a disciplined framework; it requires the organisation to work off one master plan broken down into relevant parts and areas of responsibility. The management responsibility at various levels needs to understand the contracting, measurement development and appraisal process very well and apply it consistently. Secondly management needs to appreciate that performance management is not an event but something that is managed daily but recorded and reported at certain times through reviews and appraisals.

Challenge 5     Managing poor performance

The management of poor performance is normally a reactive action, but in many cases it is delayed and therefore turns into a discussion that is difficult to make relevant. Another reason poor performance is not managed on time is the lack of valid measurements and the collection of required evidence and measurement data.

The solutions for these challenges are embedded in a comprehensive approach ensuring alignment or planning, management and performance systems