Performance Management: It's all in the Timing!
by Paul Bergquist
Published on this site: August 12th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
Those of you who are familiar with the theories of group behavior
may have heard the expression "forming - storming - norming
- performing". This expression, in essence, indicates
that a group has life-cycle periods not very different from
that of a single human being.
Remember your childhood? Childhood was all about belonging
to your group, the family. It was about learning the basic
skills, like the language, and it was about trusting your
leadership, your mom and your dad.Then there was puberty.
It was time to challenge that leadership and define your own
role within the family - or on the outside. This transition
period was not without its controversies for most of us.
And finally, you have now reached that adult period in your
life where you live in mutually dependent coexistence with
the people around you. Well, at least in theory
Groups move through the very same stages.
There's a "childhood" stage where the important
thing for any group member is to belong to the group and learn
the group's "language". Then, there's a puberty
stage where leadership is being challenged, and finally, either
group members find a way of dividing roles and responsibilities
that help them perform as a unity, or the group, as it is
known, dissolves. As with the human being, these stages may
last for only a brief period in time or they might just take
"forever."
So, what has this to do with the timing of the introduction
of a performance management system such as i.e. a Balanced
Scorecard (BSC) to your organization?
It may very well turn out to be one of the most crucial factors
determining the success or failure of your initiative!
If a BSC concept is introduced at the "childhood"
stage of a corporate leadership team's life-cycle, and particularly
if it is actively endorsed by the group's leader, it stands
a fair chance of becoming the "preferred language"
of that team for the remainder of its existence.
If introduced at the "puberty" stage, however,
it risks being used as a means of control or challenge, thus
being considered dangerous by at least some of the group members.
The chances of a successful implementation at this stage
is, therefore, a lot less probable. This will be due both
to active resistance against the concept as such and to group
members wanting to conceal or pump up actual results (if these
results may be "used against them").
Introducing such a concept in a mature and well functioning
group where people trust and respect each other, and where
there's a mutual understanding of interdependency, improves
drastically the chances of success.
This assumes, of course, that you're able to convince them
that there's more to be achieved by introducing this new tool
than leaving things as they are. This will be the real challenge
at with these guys. Such a mature group will, however, be
more likely to respond positively if facing an important threat
to its existence, such as a major change in the business environment
or flat out poor results.
Just remember that the success of the initiative at this
stage depends on the group's ability to maintain that trust,
respect and unity.
That might just be the greatest challenge.
Paul Bergquist the author, has been a consultant on
Management Information issues to major Scandinavian companies
in the Oil and Energy sector for over 16 years. He is now
the co-founder and CEO of Axsellit AS, Norway and Managing
Director of Axsellit Technologies Pvt Ltd in India
The content of this article is solely the property and opinion
of its author, Paul Bergquist http://www.axsellit.com
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