Driving Positive Community Outcomes with the Balanced Scorecard: Collaborative Strategy Management in a Community Network

Transcription

1 White Paper Driving Positive Community Outcomes with the Balanced Scorecard: Collaborative Strategy Management in a Community Network James Creelman, Director of Research & IP, Palladium; Bill Barberg, President & Founder, Insightformation, Inc.; Dr. Mark E. Wallace, CEO/CMO, North Colorado Health Alliance The Balanced Scorecard strategy management system addresses the many obstacles of aligning a disparate network around a common strategy by creating a platform through which each partner can understand their individual and combined contributions toward shared goals. This article examines the successful implementation of the Balanced Scorecard across a large network of partners seeking to drive positive outcomes in their community. Copyright 2016 Palladium

2 For more than 20 years, the Balanced Scorecard has helped deliver breakthrough performance improvements to organisations from many sectors, both commercial and public. Networked organisations represent an emerging and powerful application of the Balanced Scorecard. These networks bring together distinct organisations and groups of people to deliver collective outcomes while also achieving the goals of each individual network member. Such networked and oftentimes virtual collaborative structures are becoming more commonplace as organisations struggle with the complex challenges of the 21st century. Networked organisations vary widely depending upon their collective goals. They might consist of public sector organisations, private sector organisations, or a combination of both. They might be short term in nature (delivering a specific innovation project, for example) or longer term (dealing with deeply ingrained socio-economic challenges). The structure of these collaborations can exaggerate the same issues that organisations face individually. Networked organisations struggle to assign accountabilities, to maintain transparency, and to measure progress. Further, the looseness of the affiliation between network members creates a culture in which it is easy to assign blame elsewhere. The Balanced Scorecard strategy management system addresses these obstacles by aligning the disparate network members around a common strategy to which they all contribute and by creating a platform through which each partner can understand their progress toward a common goal. This article examines the successful implementation of the Balanced Scorecard across a large network of partners seeking to drive positive outcomes in their community. Thriving Weld Thriving Weld is a collaborative effort by the North Colorado Health Alliance (NCHA) to facilitate data sharing and collaboration in Weld County, Colorado, a community of 275,000 people in the western United States. This network of over 60 partners capitalised on the Balanced Scorecard to share specific information about their plans and progress and collectively improve the community s wellbeing. Since its launch in 2013, Thriving Weld has built more than 40 scorecards across seven focus areas: Healthy Eating; Active Living; Healthy Mind and Spirit; Access to Care; Livelihood; Education; and Health Equity. At the outset, the scorecard system appealed to the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment because it recognised that no single organisation could successfully address all the priority health issues and social determinants of health in their community. Previously, each organisation developed its strategy, measurements, reporting, and communication structures independent of one another. As a result, Weld County s many efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of their community faced problems of fragmentation, wasteful redundancy, and inefficiency. NCHA partnered with Insightformation to create a communitybased collaborative scorecard approach that would suit their networked environment and shift thinking from organisationcentred strategies to community collaboration. Thriving Weld tailored the classic Kaplan-Norton Balanced Scorecard model to their needs, using a three-perspective structure for their strategy maps and scorecards instead of the usual four: 2 Driving Positive Community Outcomes with the Balanced Scorecard Copyright 2016 Palladium

3 Outcomes are what the multi-agency partnership wishes to achieve collectively. For example, the ultimate outcome in the Healthy Eating focus area is Increased People Living at a Healthy Body Weight. Strategies (such as Increase Healthy Food Options in Restaurants and Retailers ) deliver the outcomes, essentially combining the conventional Customer and Process perspectives. Assets and Capacity Development capture the prerequisites for achieving the strategies, much as the Learning and Growth perspective supports the Process perspective in conventional scorecards. Here we find objectives such as Gather and Share Data to Improve Prioritisation and Monitoring. As with a conventional strategy map or scorecard, cause and effect build from the bottom to the top. Outcomes Decreased Consumption of Sugary Drinks Increased People Living at a Health Body Weight Increased Consumption of Healthy Foods Sustain & Promote Farmers Markets & Community Gardens Educate & Promote Healthy Food & Beverage Choices Increase Healthy Food Options in Restaurants & Retailers Strategies Enable Use of SNAP/EBT for Healthy Food Improve Availability of Affordable Healthy Food & Beverages to Lower Income Residents Align Local Org Nutrition Standards/Policies with Latest Dietary Guidelines Improve Nutrition in Schools Support Local/Regional Farm to Table Efforts Improve Local Food System Asset & Capacity Development Build a Strong Coalition of Diverse Partners to Support HEAL Gather & Share Data to Improve Prioritisation & Monitoring Collaborate to Secure Funding for HEAL Leverage Best Practices and Tools for Collective Impact Figure 1: The strategy map for the Healthy Eating focus area Driving Positive Community Outcomes with the Balanced Scorecard 3 Copyright 2015 Palladium

4 Zoomable Strategy Maps Tame the Complexity of the Common Agenda High-level focus area strategy maps are composed of objectives that are too big for any one organisation to be solely accountable for them. Thriving Weld addressed this issue using technology-enabled strategy maps that can zoom in or out to show various levels of detail, like a digital map on a GPS. Stakeholders can view a high-level strategy map to understand the big picture, then zoom in and view the details of a given objective, narrowing in on those that are most relevant to them. The zoom feature helps all partners work towards the focus area outcomes through their own spheres of work and while benefiting from the insights and data provided by the group as a whole. Outcomes Decrease Consumption of Sugary Drinks Increase People Living at a Health Body Weight Increase Consumption of Healthy Foods Zoomed Objective Expand In-School Training on Nutrition & Cooking Improve Nutrition in Schools Contributes to Zoomed Objective Objective from Healthy Eating Strategy Map Strategies Establish Healthy Food Vending Programme in Schools Provide Garden-to-Cafeteria Programme for Schools Implement Food Safety Training at All Levels Modify Parties & Rewards to Encourage Good Health Expand Farm-to-School Programs & Participants Establish Healthier School Menus with Labeling Align Local Org Nutrition Standards/Policies with Latest Dietary Guidelines Increase Partnerships with Real Food Colorado Strengthen the Weld Farm-to-School Purchasing Coalition Improve Local Food System Asset & Capacity Development Build a Strong Coalition of Diverse Partners to Support HEAL Gather & Share Data to Improve Prioritisation & Monitoring Collaborate to Secure Funding for HEAL Leverage Best Practices and Tools for Collective Impact Figure 2: Zooming in on the details of the Improve Nutrition in Schools objective 4 Driving Positive Community Outcomes with the Balanced Scorecard Copyright 2016 Palladium

5 A Robust Shared Measurement System The focus area strategy maps provide the structure for a shared measurement system. Each Outcome objective has one or two measures to monitor the community s progress. Because changes at a community level take years to achieve, outcome measures move very slowly. Instead, progress in the short term is evident in the Strategies perspective, which supports the Outcome perspective. The Balanced Scorecard methodology emphasises the importance of leading indicators, which in this case is accomplished with driver measures and associated targets that monitor the progress of objectives in the Strategies perspective. Before launching Thriving Weld, individual organisations would select their own measures for their programmes, frustrating collaborative efforts even when organisations were working toward common goals. Today the process is inverted: organisations make programme and funding decisions according to their expected impact on the driver measures, which are shared across the network providing a powerful incentive for teamwork. Prioritised Actions to Improve Strategy Execution As with a conventional scorecard system, thoughtfully selected initiatives propel progress on objectives but Weld County uses the term action instead. Community-oriented organisations are accustomed to creating and implementing action plans, so the familiar term action resonates better than the more nebulous initiative. Language is important for buy-in. Enhancing Continuous Communication with Dynamic Online Scorecards Transparency and visibility, also central to buy-in, are the keys to success. The strategy maps and scorecards for dozens of community partners are available for the public to view on Thriving Weld s website. These pages automatically update with the latest data from the centralised measure collection system. Driving Positive Community Outcomes with the Balanced Scorecard 5 Copyright 2015 Palladium

6 The Million Dollar Question Is this approach creating the desired impact? When dealing with deeply entrenched community issues like obesity and chronic disease, the time lag between embracing a new approach and seeing the outcome in the community can be considerable. The Balanced Scorecard system is no different it takes considerable time and work to see an appreciable change in the outcome measures. It takes time to change the systems, the environment, and people s behaviours. It takes time for those changes to impact health outcomes. It takes time to collect and validate data. It is early still to see the kinds of results Thriving Weld eventually intends to produce. There are, however, many encouraging signs of progress that show that this approach is creating alignment, action, and positive movement to implement the strategy: Improved Communication A year into Thriving Weld s Balanced Scorecard implementation, Dr. Mark Wallace, Weld County Health Department s Executive Director, gave a presentation at a public health conference. He told the audience, We ve had a lot of energy and activity around becoming a healthy county for quite a few years. But in the past, it was like all the organisations were people talking in a crowded restaurant. All the different conversations ended up creating a lot of noise. Now, with a shared strategy that is clearly communicated using the strategy maps, it is like being in a theatre with surround sound. Improved Alignment of Funders and Other Stakeholders Grant makers have a huge impact on how non-profit organisations work in a community. As a result of their participation in Thriving Weld s Balanced Scorecard programme, the United Way of Weld County decided to align their funding to the objectives on the strategy maps and have grantees report their performance using the shared measurement system. In turn, this decision led to greater interest among community organisations in how strategy maps can support improvements in strategic measures. As other funders take a similar approach, alignment will only grow stronger and fewer resources will be spent on fragmented, redundant data gathering and report creation. Improved Engagement and New Actions Having a clear set of shared priority objectives has inspired many community organisations to launch creative actions to address their community s needs. This list of new efforts is long and varied. For example, in 2015 community partners launched a new initiative to improve active recreation for minority youth by offering Family Fun Passes to a nearby funplex. Nearly 1400 families registered and over 3500 passes were used. In 2014, 35 organisations incorporated plans or messaging about active living and reducing the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages into their communication and modelling to youth. While many of these initiatives are small, their collective impact reveals the strength of the community s engagement in achieving big goals together. 6 Driving Positive Community Outcomes with the Balanced Scorecard Copyright 2016 Palladium

7 Conclusion The Thriving Weld experience and other similar ventures show how collaborative scorecards can address complex social challenges, from improving quality of life in economically disadvantaged communities to addressing crisis areas like drug abuse. The potential is far-reaching by adapting a system developed for the private sector to address the ever-evolving needs of the public sector, organisations spur innovative solutions to truly pressing problems. These approaches are powerful examples of delivering positive collective impact through a collaborative, networked structure. About the Authors James Creelman is head of Research and Intellectual Property at Palladium. Based in Dubai, James is an experienced consultant, trainer and author in the field of strategy execution (primarily the Balanced Scorecard) and related fields, including enterprise risk management and enterprise performance management. He has provided expert advice to organisations in the Middle East, Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. An experienced management author, James is the co-author of the book Doing More with Less: Measuring, analysing and improving performance in the government and not-for-profit sectors (2014). He has also authored or co-authored a further 23 books and reports, including Risk-Based Performance Management: Integrating strategy and risk management (2013) and Creating a Balanced Scorecard for a Financial Services Organisation (2011). Bill Barberg is a globally recognised expert in strategy management, collective impact, and the Balanced Scorecard methodology for both individual organisations and for communities or broad coalitions that strive to address issues no one organisation can address alone. He has presented many conference workshops and web conferences on collective impact and strategy management. Bill is president and founder of Insightformation, which has gained a strong reputation for expertise in deploying analysis, dashboard, Balanced Scorecard and change management solutions under his leadership. He was also the lead designer of InsightVision, a performance management software solution. Dr. Mark E. Wallace serves as CEO/CMO of the North Colorado Health Alliance. The Alliance mission is to expand access, improve quality, eliminate disparities, control costs, manage care, enhance the care experience and generate health. He serves as Executive Director and Health Officer of the Weld County Department of Health & Environment. Dr. Wallace has worked for three different hospital systems in various leadership roles and is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sunrise Community Health. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Health Foundation, the Center for Improving Value in Health Care, and the Northern Colorado Medical Society. In 2006, Dr. Wallace was appointed one of the 24 commissioners to the bipartisan Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission on Healthcare Reform and served as Vice-chair of the Commission that presented its recommendations to the Colorado legislature and governor in Driving Positive Community Outcomes with the Balanced Scorecard 7 Copyright 2015 Palladium

8 Palladium believes in the impact economy, an ecosystem of commercial, government and social interests that fundamentally re-define sustainable value. With our worldclass intellectual property, purposeful innovation and proven, time-tested know-how, clients in more than 90 countries have dramatically improved stakeholder engagement to create enduring positive outcomes, both financial and social. Our clients success in the impact economy is supported by one or more of the following four pillars: International Development with an emphasis on increasing the performance and outcomes in health, economic development, education, governance and the environment; Strategy Execution Consulting to enable order-of-magnitude improvements in both private and public sectors through a framework that translates strategy into action; Research, Professional Development and Training to encourage boundary-breaking thought leadership buttressed by a powerful knowledge transfer engine that equips clients and partners with necessary skills; and Impact Investing to re-imagine innovative ways to finance impact economy initiatives for optimum financial and social results. With our collective expertise and abiding commitment to exceeding clients objectives, Palladium transforms lives, businesses, governments and societies around the world.